Centre may send high-level teams to more states to monitor COVID-19 situation

The Centre has advised the governments of states and union territories to increase COVID-19 testing to detect missing positive cases

Moneycontrol News

November 20, 2020 / 13:31 IST

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The central government is considering sending high-level multidisciplinary teams to other states and union territories that are reporting a rise in COVID-19 cases to support efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of positive cases.

The Centre has advised the governments of states and union territories to increase COVID-19 testing to detect missing positive cases, reported CNN News18 citing health ministry sources. An increase in testing will ensure fall in positivity rate, said the government, as per the report.

It has already rushed such teams to districts of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur registering a high number of coronavirus infections.

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On November 19, the Union Health Ministry said with the spike in daily new COVID-19 cases and fatalities in Delhi, the spillover effect is being observed in the NCR regions within Haryana and Rajasthan where the number of COVID-19 positive patients is on the rise

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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