New Delhi: The experts from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said that the main reason behind the growing number of Coronavirus cases in the country is irresponsible people who are not wearing masks. When asked who is driving the pandemic in India, Professor (Dr) Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR said: “I wouldn’t say young or old but irresponsible, less cautious people who are not wearing masks are driving the pandemic in India,”

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While addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Dr Bhargava also said that three vaccine candidates are the frontrunners in the country.


“Three Covid-19 vaccines are ahead in the race in India. Serum Institute’s vaccine is in phase 2(B) & phase 3 trials and Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila’s vaccines have completed phase 1 trial,” he said.


On augmentation of the testing capacity, he said gradually the testing capacity was increased and on August 21 it finally reached the landmark of testing one million COVID-19 samples in a day.


"COVID-19 testing capacity has increased significantly, from 10 tests per day on January 30 to touching 1 million tests per day on August 21," Bhargava said.


With India having tested nearly 3.7 crore cumulative COVID-19 samples so far, the tests per million have further risen to 26,685 while the positivity rate has come down to 8.60 per cent, the Health Ministry said in an official statement.


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India is focusing on the "test, track and treat" strategy to contain the spread of the infection. As the first step towards timely identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment, higher testing also results in limiting the spread of infection, the statement added.


Bhargava's comments came soon after the Health Ministry's official bulletin revealed that there were as many as 60,975 new cases of the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours. With this, the nationwide infection tally rose to 31,67,323.


Meanwhile, the death toll climbed to 58,390 with 848 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours. There are 7,04,348 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 22.24 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.