The national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 96.36 percent. Following the national pursuit, all states and union territories have recovery rate more than 90 percent.

“India’s recovery rate is the highest in the world. Countries with higher caseload are reporting lesser recovery rate than India’s,” the ministry underlined.

With the expansion in the testing infrastructure, the COVID-19 positivity rate of India has also gone down. The daily positivity rate remains below 3 per cent.

When asked if people would face side effects after taking the vaccine, the DCGI said, “Yes, minor side effects will be there, including a little like pain in the shoulders, a slight fever, little allergies. This occurs in every vaccine but of-course, the vaccine is 110 per cent safe.”

“We are going to set up vaccination centres at state and civic-run hospitals. If we could set up 100 such centres with each catering to 100 persons, we can cover the entire health staff in 70 to 80 days,” the minister said.

Private healthcare sector, responsible for almost 70 per cent of healthcare delivery in the country, can adequately supplement the physical and human infrastructure supply in key capacity constrained regions, specifically in urban and semi-urban areas, FICCI noted.