WHO’s Chief Scientist feels it is commendable that India keeps COVID-19 cases lower than other countries

Soumya Swaminathan, World Health Organisation's Chief Scientist has commended India for keeping the coronavirus cases and deaths very low compared to other countries and said it will play an important role in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. She said the whole world has to be prepared for the ongoing transmission of infection for many many months and for perhaps years to come.

Swaminathan said it is not just enough to develop and test the vaccine, but it is also crucial to manufacture it, scale-up procurement and get health systems to vaccinate populations. All participants, including Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan, addressed the conference online.

Swaminathan said, "I would like to commend and congratulate the minister and colleagues for having contained so far the COVID pandemic in India and having kept both the number of cases and the number of deaths very low compared to other countries. However, we know it is the marathon that we are running. It is not the sprint, and India and in fact the whole world has to be prepared for the ongoing transmission of infection for many many months and for perhaps years to come."

According to the World Health Organisation, as on Monday there have been 39,76,043 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,77,708 deaths.

Swaminathan said there are many challenges in India in terms of over-population, over-crowding in many of the urban areas and poor access to healthcare facilities in some of the rural areas.

On vaccine development, Swaminathan said many vaccine candidates are being developed in India, some in partnership with other groups and some on their own.