The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,706 in the country, while the number of cases climbed to 1,65,799, registering an increase of 175 deaths and a record jump of 7,466 cases since Thursday 8am, the Union health ministry said. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 89,98, while 71,105 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. Around 42.89 per cent patients have recovered so far.
Nearly 30 groups in India, ranging from big industry players to individual academics, are trying to develop vaccines to fight coronavirus, Principal Scientific Adviser K. Vijay Raghavan said on Thursday. Of these 30, 20 are working at a good pace, he said.
“About 30 groups in India, big industry to individual academics are trying to develop vaccines to fight COVID-19 of which 20 are keeping a good pace,” Vijay Raghavan said at a media briefing.
He said vaccine development currently takes nearly 10 years, but the aim the world over is to find a vaccine for coronavirus in a year.
He said designing new drugs is a “very very big challenge” and just like a vaccine it takes a very long time. “Most attempts fail and thus you have to try a lot,” he said.
He said the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the AICTE have also embarked on a drug discovery hackathon.