Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday chair an all-party meeting on the coronavirus situation in the country amid rising cases, PTI reported. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Home Minister Amit Shah will also be present at the meeting.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 10.30 am, the news agency reported, citing unidentified officials. The Parliamentary Affairs Ministry is said to have reached out to the floor leaders of all the parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

This is the second all-party meeting called by the government to discuss the coronavirus crisis. The first one was held in April.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister held virtual meetings with three teams working on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus. These teams were from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals in Pune and Biological E and Dr Reddys Laboratories in Hyderabad.

On Saturday, Modi had visited the Serum Institute of India in Pune, Bharat Biotech’s facility in Hyderabad and Zydus Cadila in Ahmedabad to review their vaccine development efforts.

Serum Institute Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla, at a press briefing after Modi’s visit, had announced that his firm will apply for emergency use authorisation for its coronavirus vaccine candidate Covishield in two weeks. He also said that the Centre was likely to buy 300-400 million [30 to 40 crore] doses of the vaccine by July, 2021.

India has not signed a deal for a coronavirus vaccine yet so it is unclear when it will be available for use in the country. Availability of the vaccine in India will be subject to approval by domestic regulators, and the Indian government agreeing to purchase them. So far, many other nations including the United States, United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and Israel have made deals to buy millions of doses of the vaccine.

Several states in India are witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases amid the intensifying cold. The prime minister had on November 24 held a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, West Bengal, Haryana and Rajasthan to review the coronavirus situation in the respective states.

India’s coronavirus count rose to 94,31,692 on Monday morning as it reported 38,772 new cases in 24 hours. The toll rose by 443 to 1,37,139. The country’s active cases stood at 4,46,952, while the recoveries reached 88,47,600.

Follow today’s live updates on the coronavirus here.