ICMR sets up national task force on Covid-19, will also decide on lockdown

In a statement released on Tuesday evening, the ICMR said the members have been nominated for each group under the task force and the terms of reference (ToR) for all of them have been decided.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has constituted a national task force for Covid-19 to immediately initiate research studies and identify research priorities for clinical research; diagnostics and bio-markers; epidemiology and surveillance; vaccines and drug development.

A medical staff in protective gear walks through a disinfection tunnel outside Civil Hospital Sector 10, on day fourteen of the 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Coronavirus in Gurugram on April 7, 2020. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

In a statement released on Tuesday evening, the ICMR said the members have been nominated for each group under the task force and the terms of reference (ToR) for all of them have been decided.

The ToR includes identifying research priorities, review evidence, align research with level of outbreak and response; identify and create protocol; develop concept notes and identify partners for implementation.

The clinical research group is headed by AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria and its research priority is establishing a clinical research collaborative; group on diagnostics and biomarkers is headed by Dr DA Gadkari, former director of National Institute of Virology, Pune, and its research priority is to periodically advise on testing strategy; Dr DCS Reddy, community medicine expert will head the group on epidemiology and surveillance and its priority is deciding on lockdown or partial lockdown; NK Arora who heads a health research organisation will head the operations research group and Dr Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Translational Health Science, and Technology Institute will head the group on vaccines.