COVID-19 will be under control by Diwali: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Expressing confidence that India's coronavirus situation will be 'under control' by Diwali this year, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that the country was much ahead in tackling the problem.

The minister made the remark while inaugurating the 'Nation First' webinar series, organised by the Anathkumar Foundation.

"The COVID-19 will significantly come under control by the Deepavali this year. The leaders and common people effectively worked together to fight the pandemic. He inaugurated Nation first webinar series organised by Ananth Kumar Foundation," a press statement said.

Vardhan also said that the health officials had held a meeting much before the first COVID-19 case was reported in India.

"Later on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed a committee led by me which has already met 22 times until yesterday," he added.

"There was only one laboratory in June by February, which has now been increased to 1,583 nationwide. Out of this, more than 1,000 are government labs. The country is conducting about 1 million tests per day which is way ahead of the target," the health minister said.

He observed that compared to earlier, there is no scarcity of PPE kits, ventilators, and N 95 masks now.

"The scarcity of PPE kits, ventilators, and N 95 masks is no more now. Every day, five lakh PPE kits are produced in the country while 10 manufacturers are producing N95 masks. 25 producers are manufacturing ventilators," he added.

He said that vaccine trials are in full swing, with three clinical trials and four pre-clinical trials underway.

"We are expecting vaccines to be ready by the end of the year. It is because of the farsightedness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we could reach until here," he added.