Coronavirus lockdown: Looking to flatten curve in 2-3 weeks, says govt

The minister on Saturday chaired a review meeting of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and activities of the 38 laboratories across the country that work under the CSIR in the battle against COVID-19.

CSIR director-general Dr Shekhar C Mande apprised Vardhan of the recent initiative of setting up of a Core Strategy Group (CSG) and the five verticals under which corinavirus-related activities are being carried out. These verticals are Digital and Molecular Surveillance; Rapid and Economical Diagnostics; New Drugs/ Repurposing of Drugs and associated production processes; Hospital Assistive Devices and PPEs; and Supply Chain and Logistics Support Systems.

The Health Minister said, “Over the next three or four weeks we hope to flatten the curve. Of course, the virus will stay in some form or the other, so research being carried out by CSIR is not just about fighting the pandemic but also to help us in future. The vaccine and drug discovery has to continue. One of the most important outcomes is that of genome sequencing, which is being carried out by CCMB-Hyderabad. Hopefully, this can connect to the virus genome sequencing being carried out in other countries.”

Dr Rakesh Mishra, director, CSIR-CCMB, said that nearly 500 sequences of coronavirus are expected from CSIR in the next three or four weeks. “This work will help us understand the virulence and character of the virus, how fast it is mutating, and its exact path of transmission,” Vardhan said.

Delhi based CSIR-IGIB has recently developed a “rapid and cheap paper-based diagnostic test’’ and CSIR-IICB has initiated plasma-based therapy for coronavirus patients.

Addressing the heads of various science agencies, the Health Minister said, “…remember, we are running against time here. It is true that whatever you do today will benefit the future, but please remember that we are at war and that we need to minimise damage. Unlike research that usually takes months or years, we need to be faster — or else it will be too late.”

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