Jharkhand seeks 50,000 COVID vaccine doses from Centre amid rise in cases

With 11 new COVID-19 cases reported on April 6, the total number of active patients in Jharkhand rose to 60, according to a health bulletin.

PTI

April 08, 2023 / 09:27 IST

Covid vaccine

Amid rising cases of coronavirus, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta urged the Centre to provide at least 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to continue with the immunisation drive in the state.

Gupta raised the issue at a review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on April 7.

"Jharkhand have run out of COVID vaccine doses. We had sent a request to provide at least 50,000 doses to the state two weeks back but its arrival is still awaited," he said.

With 11 new COVID-19 cases reported on April 6, the total number of active patients in Jharkhand rose to 60, according to a health bulletin.

Two persons were cured of the disease in the past 24 hours, it 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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