Coronavirus vaccine will take at least 1.5 to 2 years, says Union health ministry

india

Updated: Mar 12, 2020 19:41 IST

It will take minimum 1.5 to 2 years to develop vaccines for coronavirus, the Union health ministry said on Thursday while addressing the virus outbreak situation in India.

“We have managed to isolate the coronavirus, we have 11 such isolates,” the health ministry said.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Health ministry also requested people to not panic while asking them to maintain effective social distance as a protection against coronavirus.

“Mask is not always necessary, if a person maintains effective social distance, mask is not needed. There is no need to panic,” said Luv Aggarwal, joint secretary, health ministry, said in a conference.

“Right now, luckily for India, we do not have any community transmission. We have only a few cases that have come from outside and they have primarily affected their close family members,” he said.

The health ministry also denied any evidence suggesting that high temperature kills coronavirus.

“All facts about it are still being studied. There are no confirmatory studies. It is generally expected that the virus, if it is in higher temperatures may have difficulty in surviving, but it is not confirmed,” Lav Aggarwa said.

“Though flu is not common in summer, no study or evidence that suggest high temperature kills coronavirus.”

So far, 73 positive coronavirus cases have been reported in India out of which, 56 are Indians and 17 are foreigners.

India has also evacuated 900 Indians from other countries.

“The Government of India has evacuated 900 Indian citizens along with 48 belonging to other nations like Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, US, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, and Peru,” Aggarwal added.

Three planes will be sent to Iran over next three days to bring back Indians stranded in the coronavirus-hit country.