HomeNewsIndiaCOVID-19 pandemic has 'severely' tested resilience of all nations, says PM Modi during UN ECOSOC address

COVID-19 pandemic has 'severely' tested resilience of all nations, says PM Modi during UN ECOSOC address

The prime minister said India has ensured one of the best recovery rates in the world

July 18, 2020 / 08:09 IST
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) via video conferencing, said that the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic has 'severely tested' resilience of all nations.

"COVID-19 pandemic has severely tested the resilience of all nations. In India, we have tried to make the fight against the pandemic a people's movement, by combining the efforts of the government and civil society," the prime minister said during his address, adding that India has ensured one of the best recovery rates in the world.

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The Prime Minister said that India has provided medical and other assistance to over 150 countries.

"The United Nations (UN) was originally born from the furies of the Second World War. Today, the fury of the pandemic provides the context for its rebirth and reform. Let us not lose this chance," the prime minister 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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