India reports 1,270 new COVID-19 cases, 31 deaths in a day

Six states and UTs reported a minor rise in active COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours

Sumi Sukanya Dutta

March 28, 2022 / 09:59 AM IST

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India has reported 1,270 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, continuing with its trend of clocking less than 2,000 daily cases for the last several days. The fresh number of infections takes the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 4,30,20,723.

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The number of active coronavirus cases has now slipped to 15,859 - down 328 from the previous day - and the active cases now constitute 0.04 percent of the total confirmed cases.

A total of 31 deaths due to the infectious disease were also added during the day, taking the total death toll to 5,21,035. Out of these, 22 were backlog deaths added by Kerala as part of its data reconciliation exercise.

Kerala, at 3, reported the highest number of deaths in the 24-hour period, while Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Sikkim reported one death each. Most of the states and UTs, however, did not register any death in the last 24 hours.

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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