The President of India, Droupadi Murmu laid the foundation stone for the Zonal Institute of Virology (South Zone)- Bengaluru, virtually on 27th September.

Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, the President said that the resilience and extraordinary effort of our doctors and scientists helped us deal with the crisis. She noted that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has provided exemplary support for effective COVID-19 management and is expanding its research infrastructure.

Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, stated that under Prime Minister Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), funds have been approved to set up multisector national institutions and platforms including 4 Zonal National Institutes of Virology (NIVs) towards bio-security preparedness and strengthening pandemic research across the country.

She added that "the South Zone ICMR-NIV laboratory in Bengaluru will be equipped with a state-of-the-art infrastructure and expertise in handling infectious agents of various risk groups. This would be crucial to continuously monitor the regional landscape of infectious diseases in the southern states of India, and thus contribute to bolstering the national surveillance of outbreak-prone infectious disease agents."