ICMR partners India Post for delivery of COVID-19 testing kits to labs

Nodal officers have been identified from both the agencies -- Department of Post and ICMR for each regional depot to ensure smooth operations.

May 07, 2020 / 21:27 IST

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India Post has entered into a tie-up with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for delivery of its COVID-19 testing kits to 200 additional labs designated for coronavirus testing across the country, an official statement said on Thursday.

Nodal officers have been identified from both the agencies -- Department of Post and ICMR for each regional depot to ensure smooth operations.

"Indian Council of Medical Research has set a target of carrying out around 1 lakh tests across the country per day. For this crucial work, India Post with its vast network of 1,56,000 post offices has once again turned into a COVID warrior," the statement said.

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Delivery of kits to all parts of India has become a top priority, it said, adding that government is taking all measures to ensure timely delivery of the testing kits.

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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