Moneycontrol
HomeNewsIndia4.62 lakh healthcare professionals registered on CoWIN portal in Bihar: official

4.62 lakh healthcare professionals registered on CoWIN portal in Bihar: official

CoWIN portal is an online platform for monitoring the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine.

January 10, 2021 / 09:30 IST
Story continues below Advertisement

The Bihar health department is fully geared up to carry out the vaccination drive for COVID- 19 in the state, for which 4.62 lakh healthcare professionals have registered on CoWIN portal, a senior official said here on Saturday.

CoWIN portal is an online platform for monitoring the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine.

Story continues below Advertisement

The coronavirus inoculation drive will be launched in the country on January 16 and priority will be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers, the Centre said earlier in the day.

Follow our LIVE blog for updates on the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

View more

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.
View more
+ Show