Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday that the country will have a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus by the end of the year. Speaking to reporters here, he said that a Covid-19 vaccine is likely in the next 4-5 months. "I hope that if everything goes well, India will have access to a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020," the minister tweeted later.

Union @MoHFW_INDIA #HarshVardhan (@drharshvardhan) said on Saturday that the country will have a vaccine against the deadly #coronavirus by the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters, he said that a #COVID19 vaccine is likely in the next 4-5 months.

Photo: IANS (File) pic.twitter.com/22ENrXk1rK

— IANS Tweets (@ians_india) August 22, 2020

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that one of the three Covid-19 vaccine candidates has entered the third phase of the pre-clinical human trial. According to V.K. Paul, head of the national task force on Covid-19, the vaccine candidate entering the third phase has yielded encouraging results in the initial phases of its trial.