Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Thursday claimed that a vaccine against the coronavirus was “about a month away” and that his state had brought the disease under control, PTI reported.
“We are about a month away from the Covid-19 vaccine and the state has already contained the pandemic,” he said during an event at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Gorakhpur.
Adityanath also asserted the UP’s death rate was much lower than that of the United States. “Developed countries like the US registered a Covid-19 death rate of about 8%, but Uttar Pradesh only saw 1.04% of Covid-19 deaths,” Yogi Adityanath said, according to ANI. Uttar Pradesh has registered more than 5.53 lakh coronavirus cases and 8,011 deaths so far, according to data from the Union health ministry.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister attributed his state’s success to effective health management and teamwork. He said the UP government’s work had received praise from the World Health Organization.
“Teamwork always pays rich dividends and medical institutes like AIIMS should realise their role in this regard,” he said. “More and more research should be done on the field, which is generally better than what is done in labs.”
Adityanath said that his government managed to contain Japanese Encephalitis due to effective preventive measures, according to PTI. “The same applies to Covid-19 and there is no scope for carelessness,” he added.
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The Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech have applied for emergency use authorisation of their vaccines in India. Reports, citing sources, said pharmaceutical company Pfizer has also applied for emergency use authorisation in India after it received clearance in Britain.
Serum Institute has tied up with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University to produce the potential vaccine in India. Bharat Biotech’s vaccine is being developed with the Indian Council of Medical Research, and is undergoing phase 3 trials in over 25 centres across India.
On Monday, the government dismissed reports that it had rejected drug manufacturers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech’s proposals for emergency use authorisation.
India has not signed a deal for a coronavirus vaccine yet so it is unclear when it will be available for use in the country. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at an all-party meeting last week that experts believe a coronavirus vaccine could be available in India in the next few weeks.
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