Shomporko Desk:-India is set up to mass-produce coronavirus vaccines when scientists give the thumbs up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day speech on Saturday as he also launched a national program to turn out health cards for every citizen to store their medical records.
In annual celebrations held at Delhi’s seventeenth-century Red Fort and scaled-down because of the pandemic, Modi said three vaccines are in different phases of testing in India.
“Detailed plans are in place for large-scale production of corona vaccine and making it available to every Indian,” he said.
Modi also announced a national digital health plan under which every Indian will get an identity card containing all health-related information.
“Whether it is making a doctor’s appointment, depositing money or running around for documents in the hospital, the [National Digital Health Mission] will help remove all such challenges,” he said.
India’s coronavirus death toll overtook Britain’s this week to become the fourth-highest in the world as the country reported more than 2.5 million confirmed cases, behind only the U.S. and Brazil.
On Saturday, the country reported its biggest single-day spike with 65,002 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The Health Ministry on Saturday also reported another 996 deaths, for a total of 49,036.
The average number of daily reported cases jumped from around 15,000 in the first week of July to more than 50,000 at the beginning of August.
Photo credit: Diego Puletto/Getty Images
News source: The Associated Press
