India committed to countering impact of COVID-19: Santosh Gangwar

He was addressing the virtual Non-Aligned Movement Labour Ministers Meeting under 109th session of the International Labour Conference last evening.

PTI

June 05, 2021 / 14:50 IST

Santosh Gangwar

India is committed towards making all possible efforts to counter the impact of the pandemic and emerge stronger, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has said.

He was addressing the virtual Non-Aligned Movement Labour Ministers Meeting under 109th session of the International Labour Conference last evening.

Gangwar noted that the world has witnessed loss of lives and livelihood, slowdown of economies and adverse impact on all sections of the society, especially the weaker ones.

He said there is a need to ensure better support to the healthcare systems, social protection and employment generation.

"Governments are required to deal with the pandemic and provide an effective response at policy levels, to balance business continuity, income security and above everything, well-being of all," he 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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