More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ) on Tuesday said India was doing the best possible as per its capabilities to combat the Covid-19 outbreak and that one must have faith in science which was making fast advances towards developing a vaccine and therapeutic interventions.The comments came in the wake of WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus alluding to the Spanish flu in 1918 as a reference for the coronavirus outbreak and saying the worst was to come in the coronavirus outbreak, raising new alarm bells about the pandemic just as many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures.Highlighting preventive and pre-emptive measures taken by the government, ICMR’s head of epidemiology and communicable diseases Dr R R Gangakhedkar said by implementing lockdown and social distancing measures early, India had secured dual benefits for itself. One, it allowed time for preparedness, to create health infrastructure like hospitals to provide treatment to infected people, and two, it helped buy time while science is progressing fast to develop interventions to combat the disease which is very new.He added that while new drugs and vaccines are in the pipeline, India too will benefit from them when the lockdown is lifted, even as cases will be in control due to these measures.