When will India get COVID-19 vaccine? 'By end of 2020, if all goes well,' answers Health Minister

The Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Saturday (August 22, 2020) expressed that if everything goes well, India would get its first COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan was addressing the media after inaugurating a 10- Bedded Hospital at NDRF 8th Battalion Centre in Ghaziabad and said, "Everyone across the world is trying to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Over 26 vaccine candidates around the world have reached the clinical trial phases. In India, the work is currently progressing on half a dozen candidates, of which, three vaccine candidates are in first, second and third phases."

He added, "Analysing their progress, we believe that our country will have a vaccine by the end of this year after the phased trials are completed."

"Once the effective vaccines are available, we will start manufacturing and distributing it to the citizens of India," said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

The Minister also pointed out that the country now has the capacity of carrying out over ten lakh tests for COVID-19 every day and also boasts of more than 1500 laboratories. 

Meanwhile, India’s coronavirus tally on Sunday (August 23) breached the 30-lakh mark after 69,239 new confirmed cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

As per the latest Union Ministry of Health's data, India's death count rose by 912 to 56,706. 

Of the overall tally of 30,44,940, India now has 7,07,668 active cases whereas more than 22 lakh people have recovered from the infection.