The total number of coronavirus cases has risen to 16116 which includes 13295 active cases, 2302 cured/discharged/migrated and 519 deaths

Health Ministry informed on Sunday that a high-level task force has been formed to work on the frontiers of science related to drug testing and vaccines.

The task force is tasked with the responsibility to speed up the process of vaccine development for the deadly disease. It will enable to speed up the research work carried out through international efforts by academia & research institutions, and coordinate work done by all Ministries on the issue related to vaccine development.

"Their efforts will be focussed towards identifying pathways for vaccine development. Through the Task Force, the Government will further facilitate, keep track and monitor the progress of national and international efforts in vaccine development. The Task Force will focus on “clinical cohorts” which will focus on long-term follow up of people for having better understanding of disease and management," the press release by the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated.

"This task force is co-chaired by Member (Health), NITI Aayog and Principal Scientific Advisor to the Hon. Prime Minister. Apart from this, other members are representatives from AYUSH, ICMR, Department of Science and Technology, Biotechnology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), DRDO, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)," it further stated.

Meanwhile, Aggarwal noted that there are 755 hospitals and 1389 health care centers in the country where around 2144 severe or critical patients can be treated.

The ministry further informed that cinema halls, shopping malls, and religious places will remain closed till May 3, adding that there will be no relaxations from April 20 for containment zones in hotspots. 

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) informed that 37,173 tests were done in the national capital, out of which 29,287 tests were done in labs of ICMR network. 7,886 tested in private sector labs.

The total number of coronavirus cases has risen to 16116 which includes 13295 active cases, 2302 cured/discharged/migrated and 519 deaths.