Coronavirus vaccine is government's utmost priority: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi : Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday talked about the development and India's priority for coronavirus vaccine on his weekly address Sunday Samvaad.

"Our govt is working round the clock to ensure that there is a fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, once they are ready. Our utmost priority is how to ensure vaccine for each and everybody in the country," Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said in his 'Sunday Samvaad'.

"There is a high-level expert body going into all aspects of vaccines. Our rough estimate and the target would be to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses covering approximately 25 crore people by July 2021," Union Health Minister said.

"#WatchNow the 4th Edition of #SundaySamvaad I’m thankful that so many of you are participating actively in this dialogue and helping to create mass awareness on important issues," Harsh Vardhan tweeted.

A couple of days back, Mr Harsh Vardhan had claimed that India may get a coronavirus vaccine around the first quarter of the next year.

"There are at least three viable such vaccine candidates that are in the phase of clinical trials right now in the country. We are hopeful that within the first quarter of 2021 it will be available," Vardhan had said.

Meanwhile, India has recorded more than 65 lakh positive cases of coronavirus till date. More than 55 lakh people have recovered from it so far.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 65,49,373 with 75,829 people testing positive for the infection in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,01,782 with the virus claiming 940 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.