COVID-19 Update: Uttarakhand makes RT-PCR test report mandatory for people arriving from 12 states

Issuing the advisory, Chief Secretary Om Prakash said the restriction would apply to those coming from Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan by road, air and trains from April 1.

PTI

March 31, 2021 / 09:06 AM IST

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Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Uttarakhand government on March 30 made it mandatory for people coming from a dozen states to furnish negative RT-PCR test reports not older than 72 hours on arrival. Issuing the advisory, Chief Secretary Om Prakash said the restriction would apply to those coming from Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan by road, air and trains from April 1.

People coming from these states, including those residing in Uttarakhand, shall strictly adhere to the norms of safety and social distancing as per the guidelines of the Home Affairs and the Health ministries and that of the state government, the advisory said.

Violations will be punishable under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Epidemics Act, 1897, and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, it said.

Persons above 65 years of age, those with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below 10 are advised to travel only in unavoidable circumstances, the advisory said.

The district administration shall make arrangements for random COVID-19 testing at the airport, railway stations and all border check posts, it 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.

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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.

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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