Coronavirus wrap April 9 | Here are the top developments of the day

COVID-19 pandemic will unleash the worst recession since Great Depression: IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned; and other key developments from India and around the world:

Moneycontrol News

April 09, 2020 / 21:36 IST

As of April 9, India has reported a total of 5,218 cases and 169 deaths, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has stated.

Globally, the total number of cases has beached the 1.5 million mark, and the death toll is nearing 90, 000, as per John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.

The US continues to report the maximum number of cases world over, whereas Italy has reported the maximum fatalities.

Here are the top developments from today:

# Odisha became the first state in India to extend the purported 21-day lockdown till April 30 in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

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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