COVID-19 second wave | Six-day lockdown imposed in Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi lockdown: CM Arvind Kejriwal said that the six-day lockdown period will be used to arrange oxygen, medicines and add more beds in the national capital.

Moneycontrol News

April 20, 2021 / 08:24 IST

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (Image: ANI)

The Delhi government has announced imposition of a lockdown in the national capital amid second wave of COVID-19 cases in the country. The lockdown will extend from 10.00 pm on April 19 to 6.00 am on April 26, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a televised address.

The chief minister said that the six-day lockdown period will be used to arrange oxygen, medicines and add more beds in Delhi. The announcement came shortly after Kejriwal's meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

Kejriwal said that essential services and food and medical services will continue as normal.

"In the last 24 hours, around 23,500 new COVID-19 cases were reported. Positivity rate and infections have increased. If 25,000 patients come every day then system will crumble, there is a shortage of beds," Kejriwal said.

"Delhi’s health system has been stretched to its limit, is under stress. Harsh measures will have to be taken to prevent a collapse of the health system," Kejriwal added.

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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