COVID-19 task force constitutes 5 groups to expedite research

The National Task Force for COVID-I9 management has constituted five groups to identify research priorities and quickly initiate studies on them, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Tuesday.

The groups are: Clinical Research Group, Research on Diagnostics and Bio-markers, Epidemiology and Surveillance, Operations Research, Vaccines/Drug Research and Development.

The National Task Force on Monday had recommended to establish the India COVID-19 Clinical Research Collaborative Network to be coordinated by the ICMR for developing specific clinical management protocols and further the research and development for therapeutics.

For this purpose, a central database of clinical and laboratory parameters of hospitalized COVID-19 cases is being created.

"The goal of this network is to enhance the clinical understanding of COVID-19 in the country so as to develop specific clinical management protocols and further R&D for therapeutics," the country's apex health research body said on Monday.

The death toll in the country due to novel coronavirus rose to 124 and the number of cases climbed to 4,789 on Tuesday, registering an increase of 508 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.