<p align="left">India is expected to produce five million COVID-19 test kits per day by July, reducing significantly its dependence on imports for diagnostics of the viral infections spreading across the globe.</p>.<p align="left">Addressing a press conference, top scientists K Vijayraghavan and V K Paul also sought to give a reality check on the vaccine development efforts making it clear that the earliest immunisation shots will be available only some time next year.</p>.<p align="left">The global efforts at vaccine development are aimed at delivering results within a year what otherwise would have taken 10 years.</p>.<p align="left">“When a vaccine is made, it is not like a switch which will be available to everyone on day one. This disease is so unusual that the youngest to the oldest would need a vaccine and the logistics of making vaccines available is also being discussed,” Vijayraghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, said.</p>.<p align="left">On the testing front, Paul said 20 Indian companies have been manufacturing indigenous testing kits to meet the growing domestic requirement.</p>.<p align="left">“These companies will be in a position to deliver half-a-million testing kits every day by July. We may even export these kits after meeting our domestic demand,” said Paul, Member (Health), Niti Ayog.</p>.<p align="left">India’s COVID-19 count increased by 6,556 on Thursday to touch 1,58,323, while the death toll witnessed a sharp spike as 194 fatalities, taking the total to 4,531. According to the Health Ministry, there are 86,110 active cases while 67,692 have been discharged from hospitals.</p>.<p align="left">Besides, Vijayraghavan said that AICTE and CSIR have embarked on a drug discovery hackathon where students are trained with information on how to do computational drug discovery.</p>.<p align="left">He also said five important things that need to be kept in mind for the prevention of COVID-19 before the vaccine is developed are – social distancing, hand hygiene, surface cleaning, tracking and testing.</p>
<p align="left">India is expected to produce five million COVID-19 test kits per day by July, reducing significantly its dependence on imports for diagnostics of the viral infections spreading across the globe.</p>.<p align="left">Addressing a press conference, top scientists K Vijayraghavan and V K Paul also sought to give a reality check on the vaccine development efforts making it clear that the earliest immunisation shots will be available only some time next year.</p>.<p align="left">The global efforts at vaccine development are aimed at delivering results within a year what otherwise would have taken 10 years.</p>.<p align="left">“When a vaccine is made, it is not like a switch which will be available to everyone on day one. This disease is so unusual that the youngest to the oldest would need a vaccine and the logistics of making vaccines available is also being discussed,” Vijayraghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, said.</p>.<p align="left">On the testing front, Paul said 20 Indian companies have been manufacturing indigenous testing kits to meet the growing domestic requirement.</p>.<p align="left">“These companies will be in a position to deliver half-a-million testing kits every day by July. We may even export these kits after meeting our domestic demand,” said Paul, Member (Health), Niti Ayog.</p>.<p align="left">India’s COVID-19 count increased by 6,556 on Thursday to touch 1,58,323, while the death toll witnessed a sharp spike as 194 fatalities, taking the total to 4,531. According to the Health Ministry, there are 86,110 active cases while 67,692 have been discharged from hospitals.</p>.<p align="left">Besides, Vijayraghavan said that AICTE and CSIR have embarked on a drug discovery hackathon where students are trained with information on how to do computational drug discovery.</p>.<p align="left">He also said five important things that need to be kept in mind for the prevention of COVID-19 before the vaccine is developed are – social distancing, hand hygiene, surface cleaning, tracking and testing.</p>