World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Monday lauded India for being able to keep the coronavirus cases and deaths very low as compared to other countries.
While addressing an online conference on the occasion of National Technology Day, 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.”
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan participated in the online conference among other dignitaries.
She also said that India’s participation in vaccine development is essential for global benefit.
“India will play an important role in vaccine development. The world cannot have enough vaccines for everyone if India is not part of the process,” she said.
As per reports, Swaminathan also revealed the various stages that go in the production of a vaccine.
In order for a vaccine to be effective, it is crucial to manufacturing it, scale-up procurement and gets health systems to vaccinate populations, she added.
She also said that it usually takes 10 years to develop a vaccine but in the case of Ebola it was done in five years.
“The aim is to get a (coronavirus) vaccine out in a year or so. Or even less if possible. I am very optimistic that some of these will be successful,” said Swaminathan.