COVID cases haven’t yet peaked or even plateaued: AIIMS Director  

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Randeep Guleria, one of India's leading medical experts, has asserted that the coronavirus cases in the country have not yet hit their peak or even plateaued.

The remarks come at a time when the infections are racing ahead with the country adding at least a lakh new cases every two days. It has logged more than 23 lakh cases and over 46,000 deaths so far since the first case on January 30.

"These are trying times. It has tested the resilience of the nation. We have not reached the peak or started plateauing as far as cases are concerned," Guleria, who is also the part of a core team monitoring the pandemic, said.

Shedding light on the vaccine development, he said that India has an advantage because it makes almost 60 per cent of the world's vaccines.

"We have the capacity to manufacture a large number of vaccines and that is the commitment that the government and manufacturers have given -- that we will be able to upscale our manufacturing capacity not only for our own country but for the entire world," he added.

Three vaccine candidates are in different stages of human clinical trials in India -- one developed by University of Oxford by Pune's Serum Institute of India, the other inactivated virus vaccine by Bharat biotech and the third DNA vaccine by Zydus Cadila.

The country's top pulmonologist further said that the vaccine development has moved so rapidly because of the collaborative work between various countries. "What the pandemic has shown is the resilience that the world has and the way researchers, manufactures and industries can come together to overcome any hardship we face as a planet."

Guleria, however, advised caution with regards to the Russian vaccine, being touted as the world's first coronavirus vaccine. Elaborating on the safety aspect, he said that the issue would be just to make sure that the vaccine is "safe and efficacious".

"Any vaccine that is tried in a large number of people who are elderly or have comorbidities, safety is the most important thing and should of course be efficacious in terms of what degree of protection does it give and how long the protection lasts," the AIIMS Director said.

The comments come in the backdrop of Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement about the approval of the coronavirus vaccine for public use. It is, however, marred by controversies and is yet to complete the final trials.