Bio-medical research in COVID-19 times

The COVID-19 public health emergency has impacted not only the life of the people worldwide but also biomedical and health research in unprecedented ways. The situation has changed dramatically since the day WHO declared COVID-19 as “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”[1] on 30th January, 2020 and then declared it a “Pandemic” on 11th March, 2020.[2],[3] Every country has responded to the “Pandemic” differently, and in India the Ministry of Home Affairs introduced the “Disaster Management Act” with suspension on transportations and closure of institutions (including education, training, research, and coaching institutes).[4] Challenges have arisen given the social distancing norms, quarantines, limitations in travel, interruption of supply chain and transportation of samples, the chances of research participants and researchers being infected with the virus.