Maharashtra extends COVID-19 lockdown till November 30: Here's what is allowed and what remains prohibited

Maharashtra COVID-19 lockdown: This comes days after the Home Ministry had extended unlock guidelines issued on September 30 till November 30, 2020.

Moneycontrol News

October 29, 2020 / 07:04 PM IST

Maharashtra government on October 29 extended the lockdown in the state due to COVID-19 pandemic till November 30 and said that those activities allowed under 'Mission Begin Again' will continue to remain permitted.

This comes days after the Home Ministry had extended unlock guidelines issued on September 30 till November 30, 2020.

"In respect of certain activities, having relatively higher degree of risk of COVID infection, State/ UT Governments have been permitted to take decisions for their re-opening, based on the assessment of the situation and subject to SOPs," the MHA said in a statement on October 27.

Here's what will be allowed and what will remain prohibited in Maharashtra under the new orders:

>> Under Unlock 5.0 guidelines and Mission Begin Again, the state government had earlier in October allowed restaurants, bars, food courts to open from October 5, 2020.

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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