Lok Sabha Question No. 931 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-18
Subject: Development of COVID Vaccine
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Bidyut Baran Mahato, Jagdambika Pal, Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Sudheer Gupta, Pritam Gopinath Munde, Ramdas Chandrabhanji Tadas, Krupal Balaji Tumane, Shrirang Appa Barne, Subhash Chandra Baheria, D.K. Suresh, Adoor Prakash, Thomas Chazhikadan, Malook Nagar, Sunil Baburao Mendhe, Sanjay Sadashivrao Mandlik

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 931 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th SEPTEMBER, 2020

## DEVELOPMENT OF COVID VACCINE

## 931. SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

SHRI SANJAY SADASHIVRAO MANDLIK:

SHRI KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE:

SHRIMATI MALA RAJYA LAXMI SHAH:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

SHRI D.K.SURESH:

DR.PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE:

SHRI SUNIL BABURAO MENDHE:

SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

SHRI THOMA S CHAZHIKADAN:

ADV.ADOOR PRAKASH:

SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS:

SHRI SUBHASH CHANDRA BAHERIA:

SHRI MALOOK NAGAR :

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) the total number of persons affected due to COVID - 19 pandemic till date, State/UT - wise;
- (b) the number of deaths/recoveries reported as on date;
- (c) the details of Government institutes and private companies which are conducting research on development of COVID - 19 vaccines along with the funds allocated/expenditure incurred by the Government in this regard;
- (d) the status of each vaccine along with the time by which the vaccine is likely to be developed and made available for public and the authority which is likely to determine the price of the vaccine;
- (e) whether the Gove rnment is taking steps to collaborate with international organizations or other countries in the development of vaccine, if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether the Government proposes to establish dedicated research centres for research and developmentof antidote to epidemic causing pathogens, if so, the details thereof along with other steps taken to curb the increasing proliferation of Corona virus?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a)& (b) : The State - wise details of total number of active cured/discharged/recovered cases and deaths is an Annexure I .

cases,

(c) : Nearly 30 vaccine candidates based on multiple technologies / platforms are un development in India, by b oth academia and industry. The Department of Biotechnology is supporting  8  proposals  by  industry  and  2  proposals  by  academia  for  candidate  vacc development  and  associated  research  resources.  Some  major  industry  based  efforts  be supported by DBT inclu de Some major projects being supported include Phase III trial o rBCG  vaccine  by  Serum  Institute  of  India,  development  of  mRNA  vaccine  (Gennova Biopharmaceuticals  Ltd.),  inactivated  rabies  virus  vector  vaccine  (Bharat  Biotech) VesiculoVax platform bas ed candidate (Aurobindo Pharma). The funds allocated for these projects  by  Department  of  Biotechnology  and  Department  of  Science  and  Technology  i approximately Rs. 78.4306 crore.

(d): The vaccines are in different stages of pre -clinical and clinical deve opment. Nearly 3 candidates are in advanced stage of Phase I/II/III trials and 4 are in advanced pre - clinical development  stage.  Vaccine  availability  is  subject  to  successful  completion  of  pha clinical trial.

(e): The Government of India conveyed i ts intent to be part of the Vaccine Pillar of th Access to COVID - 19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which may be beneficial in providing access to the global vaccine candidates in advanced stages, for their further utilization in t Further, the Department of Biotechnology through the Ind - CEPI Mission is involved in key partnerships  with Coalition  for  Epidemic  Preparedness  Innovations  ( CEPI)  for  supporting Indian researchers for development of clinical immune assays to advance vaccine rese . Also, oversight is being provided by the Candidate Vaccine Advisory Committee (CVAC) under  the  Indo - US  Vaccine  Action  Programme  (VAP)  to  strengthen  indigenous  vaccine development activities.

(f): Five  COVID19  Biorepositories  have  been  setup  by  Departmen t  of  Biotechnology, which  have  collected  more  than  40,000  samples  which  have  been  made  available  t researchers and industry for developing diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines . Genome sequencing of more than 2000 SARS - CoV - 2 samples collected from across the country has been completed, which is important for development diagnostics, drugs and vaccines .

A brief on Public Health Response to COVID - 19 is attached as Annexure II .

State/UT wise details of number of total COVID - 19 cases, active cases, recovered cases and deaths (as on 16 - 09- 2020)

|   S. No. | Name of State / UT                   |   Total Cases |   Active cases |   R ecovered/ Discharged/ Migrated cases |   Deaths |
|----------|--------------------------------------|---------------|----------------|------------------------------------------|----------|
|        1 | Andaman & Nicobar Islands            |          3574 |            204 |                                     3318 |       52 |
|        2 | Andhra Pradesh                       |        583925 |          92353 |                                   486531 |     5041 |
|        3 | ArunachalPradesh                     |          6466 |           1795 |                                     4658 |       13 |
|        4 | Assam                                |        146575 |          29180 |                                   116903 |      492 |
|        5 | Bihar                                |        160871 |          13055 |                                   146980 |      836 |
|        6 | Chandigarh                           |          8592 |           2991 |                                     5502 |       99 |
|        7 | Chhattisgarh                         |         70777 |          35909 |                                    34279 |      589 |
|        8 | Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu |          2783 |            229 |                                     2552 |        2 |
|        9 | Delhi                                |        225796 |          29787 |                                   191203 |     4806 |
|       10 | Goa                                  |         25511 |           5102 |                                    20094 |      315 |
|       11 | Gujarat                              |        116183 |          16357 |                                    96582 |     3244 |
|       12 | Haryana                              |         98622 |          20430 |                                    77166 |     1026 |
|       13 | Himachal Pradesh                     |         10335 |           3801 |                                     6444 |       90 |
|       14 | Jammu and Kashmir                    |         56654 |          18678 |                                    37062 |      914 |
|       15 | Jharkhand                            |         64439 |          14118 |                                    49750 |      571 |
|       16 | Karnataka                            |        475265 |          98555 |                                   369229 |     7481 |
|       17 | Kerala                               |        114033 |          31226 |                                    82341 |      466 |
|       18 | Ladakh                               |          3499 |            938 |                                     2517 |       44 |
|       19 | Madhya Pradesh                       |         93053 |          21620 |                                    69613 |     1820 |
|       20 | Maharashtra                          |       1097856 |         292174 |                                   775273 |    30409 |
|       21 | Manipur                              |          8210 |           1745 |                                     6418 |       47 |
|       22 | Meghalaya                            |          4036 |           1818 |                                     2190 |       28 |
|       23 | Mizoram                              |          1480 |            558 |                                      922 |        0 |
|       24 | Nagaland                             |          5229 |           1269 |                                     3945 |       15 |
|       25 | Odisha                               |        158650 |          32267 |                                   125738 |      645 |
|       26 | Puducherry                           |         20601 |           4674 |                                    15522 |      405 |
|       27 | Punjab                               |         84482 |          21154 |                                    60814 |     2514 |
|       28 | Rajasthan                            |        105898 |          16761 |                                    87873 |     1264 |
|       29 | Sikkim                               |          2173 |            464 |                                     1690 |       19 |
|       30 | Tamil Nadu                           |        514208 |          46806 |                                   458900 |     8502 |
|       31 | Telangana                            |        162844 |          30401 |                                   131447 |      996 |
|       32 | Tripura                              |         20150 |           7498 |                                    12435 |      217 |
|       33 | Uttarakhand                          |         34407 |          10739 |                                    23230 |      438 |
|       34 | Uttar Pradesh                        |        324036 |          67335 |                                   252097 |     4604 |
|       35 | West Bengal                          |        209146 |          23942 |                                   181142 |     4062 |
|       36 | India (Total)                        |       5020359 |         995933 |                                  3942360 |    82066 |

## Public Health Response to COVID -19 (as on 15 th September, 2020)

Government  of  India  has  taken  a  series  of  actions  to  prevent,  control  and  mitigate  the  im COVID - 19 . India followed a  whole of Government and whole of society approach. Hon'ble Prime Minister, a High level Group of Ministers (GoM), Cabinet Secretary, Committee of Secretaries and senior officers in MoHFW continue to monitor public health response to COVID -19 in the country.

The  public  health  actions  were  taken  in  a  pre - emptive,  pro - active,  graded  manner  based  on the evolving  scenario.  A  number  of  travel  advisories  were  issued  restricting  inflow  of  intern travelers, till such time, commercial flights were suspended on 23 rd March, 2020. Till then, a total of 14,154 flights with 15,24,266 passengers have been screened at these airports. Screening was also done at 12 major and 65 minor ports and land border crossings. In the initial part of the p India evacuated a large number of stranded passengers from then COVID affected countries (Chi Italy, Iran, Japan, Malaysia) and again in the un - lockdown phase, a total of 13,18,891 passengers have been brought back (as on 14 th September, 2020) and followed up.

Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) is conducting contact tracing through communi sur veillance.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  pandemic,  this  was  done  for  travel  related  c subsequently for cases being reported from community as a part of containment strategy. As on th September 2020, a total of about 40 lakh persons have been kept un der surveillance. There are 726 laboratories conducting COVID - 19 Testing. India is testing is about 1 million samples a day. A to of 5.8 crore samples have been tested so far (as on 14 th September 2020).

As on 15 th September, 2020, a total of 15,360 CO VID treatment facilities with 13,20,881 dedicated isolation  bed  without  O 2 support  have  been  created.  Also,  a  total  of  2,32,516  oxygen  supported isolation  beds  and  63,194  ICU  beds  (including  32,409  ventilator  beds).  Guidelines  on  Cli management of COVID- 19 have been issued and are being updated regularly.

States are being supported in terms of supply of logistics. So far 1.41 Crore of PPE Kits, 3. N - 95 masks, 10.84 crore tablets of Hydroxychloroquine and 30,663 ventilators and 1,02,400 oxygen cylinders  have  been  supplied  to  States/UTs/  Central  Government  hospitals  so  far  (as  on th September, 2020).

Various cadres of personnel and volunteers across sectors and departments for COVID related w and maintenance of other essential medical services have been worked out, trained through res made available on the website of MoHFW, iGOT (online platf orm) by DOPT (https://igot.gov.in/igot/ ).

MoHFW  website  is  being  daily  to  provide  general  public  with  information  on  current  status COVID - 19  spread in India. Communication material is also being hosted on MoHF W website and through social media. A dedicated call centre / helpline (1075) has been started to guide comm large which are being used by the citizens very effectively and on a regular basis.