"Confident COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Ready In 3-4 Months": Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said he was confident that the COVID-19 vaccine would be ready in the next three-four months and added that the priority to provide the same to 135 crore Indians would be based on scientific evaluation.

The Minister was addressing the FICCI FLO webinar on ''The Shifting Healthcare Paradigm During and Post-Covid'' today.

"I am confident that the COVID-19 vaccine will be ready in the next three-four months. Priority for the vaccine will be designed on the basis of scientific data. Health care workers and corona warriors will naturally be prioritised followed by elderly and disease-prone people. Very detailed planning is underway for vaccine dissemination. An e-vaccine intelligence platform has been created to discuss the blueprint for the same. Tracking and tracing of the vaccine would be neck-deep once it's available for the public. Hopefully, 2021 should be a better year for all of us," the Health Minister said.

Praising the efforts of the Central government, the Minister said some ''very bold steps'' were taken to fight the pandemic in the last few months.

"Janta curfew was a very innovative and unique experiment by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It had nationwide participation from the citizens. The decision to impose a lockdown followed by unlocking were some bold decisions by the central government during the pandemic. We have handled it very well," the Minister said.

"The government has been very proactive in its response towards this fight. Airports, seaports and land borders were put under surveillance for COVID-19 well in time," he added.

Giving an account of the journey of the last 11 months, the Minister said India was amongst the top countries to control the impact of the pathogen in a short duration.

"Initially we faced a shortage of PPE kits, ventilators and N-95 masks. But in a few months time, we were able to export these things to different parts of the world. Our scientists are now well ahead of many others globally in their research on the vaccine. In a couple of months, we should be able to produce a vaccine for the COVID-19 infection. Our performance has been excellent on every parameter set by the World Health Organisation, we have the highest recovery rate and the least fatality rate. We have 2,115 laboratories in every look and corner of the country for COVID tests. Over 20 lakh dedicated COVID beds are in place. It proves that whenever India decides to excel at something, it does," the Health Minister asserted.

Sharing the vision of PM Modi he said that the Centre will deliver a new India to the citizens in 2022.

"We will deliver a new India in 2022 as per the dream of PM Narendra Modi. Only humanism and nationalism would prevail in this new India as our PM envisions," Harsh Vardhan concluded.