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Aarogya Setu app released for Jio Phones in coronavirus battle

India was set to roll out a version of its coronavirus contact-tracing application Aarogya Setu for JioPhones within days, as it looks to increase the reach of the system, Reuters reported last week.

May 14, 2020 / 13:07 IST
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India's technology ministry said on Thursday it had rolled out a version of its Bluetooth contact-tracking app for 5 million JioPhones, the cheap internet-enabled devices sold by Reliance Industries' telecoms unit.

India was set to roll out a version of its coronavirus contact-tracing application Aarogya Setu for JioPhones within days, as it looks to increase the reach of the system, Reuters reported last week.

Story continues below Advertisement

India, which imposed the world's biggest shutdown in late March to battle the spread of the coronavirus, last month launched the Aarogya Setu (Health Bridge) app -- a Bluetooth and GPS-based application which alerts users who may have come in contact with people who later test positive for COVID-19.

The app, which was now been downloaded by 100 million Indians, was initially available only on Google's Android and on Apple devices.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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Reuters
first published: May 14, 2020 12:55 pm

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