Moneycontrol
HomeNewsIndiaCoronavirus lockdown: MHA allows movement of stranded migrant workers, students by special trains

Coronavirus lockdown: MHA allows movement of stranded migrant workers, students by special trains

The Railways will endeavour to ensure social distancing norms and hygiene with the cooperation of passengers. On longer routes, the Railways will provide a meal enroute during the journey.

May 01, 2020 / 16:46 IST
Story continues below Advertisement
Representative image

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 allowed the movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students, etc. stranded at different places due to the coronavirus lockdown, by special trains.

The Ministry of Railways will designate nodal officers for coordinating with states/ Union Territories for their movement.

Story continues below Advertisement

As per the guideline issued by the Home Ministry, it has been decided to run 'Shramik Special' trains from May 1, which is observed as Labour Day.

These special trains will be run from point to point on the request of both the concerned state governments as per the standard protocols for sending and receiving such stranded persons.

The passengers have to be screened by the sending states and only those found asymptomatic would be allowed to travel. Sending state governments will have to bring these persons in batches that can be accommodated in the train to the designated railway station in sanitized buses following social distancing norms and other precautions.

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