HomeNewsIndiaCoronavirus pandemic | Maharashtra's coronavirus tally crosses 41,000-mark; 64 new deaths

Coronavirus pandemic | Maharashtra's coronavirus tally crosses 41,000-mark; 64 new deaths

A total of 1,408 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the tally of recovered patients to 11,726, the official said.

May 21, 2020 / 22:04 IST
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Representative image
Representative image

Maharashtra on Thursday recorded as many as 2,345 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the state to 41,642, a health official said.

With 64 fatalities due to the pandemic reported during the day, 41 of them in the worst-hit city of Mumbai, the death toll in the state rose to 1,454, the official said.

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This was the fifth consecutive day when the state reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases.

"With this, the state has reported more than 10,000 cases in just five days," the official 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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