Joint Secretary in Ministry of Health Lav Aggarwal said, with over 1,200 cases of COVID-19, the number of hotspots in the country has increased.

Joint Secretary in Ministry of Health Lav Aggarwal said, 227 fresh confirmed cases of novel coronavirus or COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours in the country. With this the total number of cases has now gone up to 1251. Three deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, one each from Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

He also informed that the Government has formed an Empowered Committee led by Dr Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and Professor K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister which will focus on Research and Development and coordinate with various scientific agencies, regulatory bodies and private industry to work on countering COVID-19. He said, 101 people have been cured and discharged so far.

Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar of Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said, over 42 thousand samples have been tested so far. He said, 123 labs are functional and 49 private labs have been given clearance. He informed that 399 patients have been screened in private labs on Tuesday.

Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar informed that ICMR is working with the Department of Bio Technology and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on the agenda of developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 disease.