Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Centre sends high-level teams to 5 States

The five states are: Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and West Bengal

Moneycontrol News

October 17, 2020 / 15:37 IST

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The Centre has sent high-level teams to five states - Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and West Bengal - to check the recent surge in new COVID-19 cases.

Among these states, Karnataka (14.1 percent) has the highest share of the country's total active cases, and West Bengal has the highest case fatality rate (1.9 percent), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on October 16.

The teams will include a joint secretary (nodal officer for the respective State) and a public health expert, and a clinician, the ministry said in a statement.

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"The teams will support the state efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases. The Central teams shall also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up," the health ministry said.

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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