COVID-19 Second Wave | Kerala to impose lockdown from May 8 to May 16

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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has announced a nine-day lockdown in the state starting May 8 to counter the surge in COVID-19 cases, according to an ANI report.

Vijayan on May 6 announced that Kerala will be put under full lockdown starting May 8 up to May 16. Currently, there are restrictions on unnecessary travel, a night curfew and partial lockdowns on weekends.

The nine-day long lockdown will begin at 6 am on Saturday. The announcement comes after a record 41,953 new cases were reported in Kerala. The current active caseload is 3.75 lakh, currently the third highest in India after Maharashtra and Karnataka.

"Kerala is going through a serious situation with COVID spreading rapidly in the state. The test positivity rate is not coming down. The situation calls for imposing more restrictions in the state,” said Vijayan. The positivity rate stands at 25.69 percent.

Lockdown to be imposed in the state from 6 am on May 8 to May 16, in wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases in the second wave: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

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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.

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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.

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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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(file photo) pic.twitter.com/16N1wY47It — ANI (@ANI) May 6, 2021

Vijayan recently urged the centre to ensure the supply of liquid medical oxygen. The state’s health system has come under pressure due to the increasing number of patients.

Overall, there are currently 35,66,398 active cases in India and over 2 lakh deaths attributed to the coronavirus.