The Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that more than four vaccines against the coronavirus are in advanced stages of pre-clinical trial in the country.
During a discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic in Lok Sabha on Sunday, Harsh Vardhan said: "145 vaccine candidates across the world are under pre-clinical evaluation, around 35 under clinical trials. In India, we gave all support to 30 vaccine candidates -3 of these are in advanced trials of phases 1, 2, and 3. Over 4 in advanced stages of the pre-clinical trial."
The Union Health Minister also informed the Lok Sabha that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received Rs 893.93 crores from PM-CARES Fund for 50,000 made in India ventilators.
"On January 30, World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the world about such disease. But we had started work from January 8. By January 17, we had issued a detailed health advisory and started point of entry surveillance and community surveillance. On January 30, when the first case in India was reported, authorities did 162 contact tracing," he said.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health on Monday said that India occupied the top position in the world in terms of total COVID-19 recoveries as the country constitutes 19 per cent of total global recoveries.
"India occupies the top position in the world in terms of total recoveries. More than 43 lakhs have recovered. India's recoveries constitute 19% of total global recoveries," Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said in a tweet quoting the statistics given by Worldometers.
As per the data of Worldometers, after India, the USA constitutes 18.70 per cent of total COVID-19 recoveries and Brazil's share of total recoveries stood at 16.90 per cent. Worldometers, run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers, gives live world statistics on population and disease count, among others.
