Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directs India Post to prioritise medicines delivery

The minister also shared that the postal department has been able to achieve record financial transaction during the lockdown either by paying people at their doorstep or from nearby post offices.

PTI

April 13, 2020 / 22:53 IST

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday directed the Department of Posts to prioritise delivery of medicines during the lockdown. The post offices have been kept open under essential services to support movement of important documents and parcels during the lockdown.

"I have instructed Secretary, Dept.of Posts to ensure that delivery of medicines through Speed Post is given the highest priority during lockdown. All employees of @IndiaPostOffice should be sensitized so that no one should face any difficulty in receiving or sending medicines," Prasad said in his tweet.

The minister also shared that the postal department has been able to achieve record financial transaction during the lockdown either by paying people at their doorstep or from nearby post offices.

"Delighted to announce that @IndiaPostOffice today (Monday) hit an all-time high, crossing 1 lakh mark, to record 1.09 lakh transactions a day in disbursing cash through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS)," the minister said in his tweet.

Several state governments and central government departments dole out benefits of various scheme through India Post.

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.

Show

Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directs India Post to prioritise medicines delivery

The minister also shared that the postal department has been able to achieve record financial transaction during the lockdown either by paying people at their doorstep or from nearby post offices.

Related Stories

Subscribe to Tech Newsletters

Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directs India Post to prioritise medicines delivery

The minister also shared that the postal department has been able to achieve record financial transaction during the lockdown either by paying people at their doorstep or from nearby post offices.

Related Stories

Subscribe to Tech Newsletters

Trending news