Coronavirus pandemic | Panic shopping affects BigBasket, Grofers

Staples products such as flour and milk are flying off the shelves in no time not just on BigBasket, but also on rival online grocery shop Grofers.

Moneycontrol News

March 20, 2020 / 14:05 IST

As the cases of patients testing positive for the deadly novel coronavirus continues to rise in India, panic shopping has been increasing too. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself appealing people not to hoard essentials and deprive others of them, thousands of Indians are stocking up provisions in bulk.

This behaviour has been fuelled by fears of the coronavirus pandemic slipping into stage three in India, in which a nationwide lockdown may be in the offing to contain further spread of the virus.

This trend of shopping has affected the delivery efficiency of online grocery store BigBasket, reported the Live Mint.

Recently, when a resident of Kolkata ordered groceries in bulk from BigBasket within a few days of hoarding supplies for a month, she was informed that her consignment would take two to four days to be delivered. Usually, Big Basket delivers in about 12 hours, but due to this worrying trend of panic shopping, several online orders were cancelled or delayed.

According to the report, BigBasket is finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the sudden increase in orders. Staples products such as flour and milk are flying off the shelves in no time, not just on BigBasket but also on rival online grocery shop Grofers.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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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