Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has exhorted scientists to develop COVID-19 mitigation solutions keeping a fixed time frame in mind, saying these are "times of war" and it should not be treated as a routine research project. He held a review meeting with the Director General of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Shekhar Mande, and all the 38 CSIR lab directors.<br />'' <br />'' During the meeting, Mr Mande said a Core Strategy Group (CSG) has been set up and five verticals have been identified under which coronavirus-related activities are being carried out.<br />'' <br />'' These include digital and molecular surveillance, rapid and economical diagnostics, new drugs/re-purposing of drugs and associated production processes, hospital assistive devices and PPEs; and supply chain and logistics support systems.<br />'' <br />'' Mr.Vardhan appreciated that CSIR labs were also conducting tests of swab samples of coronavirus patients and some of them have started doing genetic sequencing of the virus with a target of doing 500 sequencing in coming weeks.<br />''