HomeNewsIndiaCoronavirus lockdown | Several ministers, officials return to work at ministries

Coronavirus lockdown | Several ministers, officials return to work at ministries

Most of the ministers and officials have been following the government's work-from-home protocols issued in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

April 13, 2020 / 13:57 IST
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Prakash Javadekar
Prakash Javadekar

Several Union ministers and senior officers returned to their offices here on Monday. Most of the ministers and officials have been following the government's work-from-home protocols issued in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of State for Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel were some of the early office-goers on Monday, along with other senior officials.

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Besides the ministers, all officers of the joint-secretary level and above have been asked to be present in the ministries along with one-third of the essential staff from Monday, sources had said.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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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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