"Coronavirus vaccine still 12 to 18 months away," says WHO as Covid-19 global count soars

In a massive and worrying statement,  World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday has said that vaccine for coronavirus will still take at least 12 to 18 months. In his media dress, Director-General Dr. Tedros ham Ghebreyesus on Friday said that re are w more than half a million confirmed cases of COVID19 & more than 20,000 deaths. He expressed that se are tragic numbers, ding that re are hundreds of thousands of survivors.

Speaking about vaccine, he said, "One of most important areas of international cooperation is research and development. A vaccine is still at least 12 to 18 months away. In meantime, we recognize that re is an urgent need for rapeutics to treat patients and save lives."

Currently, re are 597,262 cases in world, with 27,365 deaths. So far, 133,363 people have recovered.  United States on March 27 overtook number of cases in Italy and China, and has w reported more than 100,000 cases. In U.S., health officials have reported at least 1,300 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Kerala reports highest number of COVID-19 cases at 176 in India, tests over 5000 samples

Coronavirus in India

As of March 28, India has reported over 850 active cases, and 19 deaths. To tackle growing cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown for 21 days. highest number of cases have been reported from Kerala - 176 cases and Maharashtra - 180 cases. 

COVID-19: MHA releases new lockdown guidelines; farming & related activities to operate

Meanwhile, on Monday, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) published a study warning about community transmission of pandemic that may take place from a minimum of 20 days to a few months. It also states that by quarantining of individuals with symptoms of COVID-19 can delay introduction of virus into community by three days to three weeks  - which in turn reduces cumulative cases by 62%  and peak number of cases by 89%, in an optimistic scenario. 

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