PepsiCo commits 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits, over 5 million meals to India

PepsiCo India, along with its parent company's philanthropic arm PepsiCo Foundation, will provide 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits and over 5 million meals to support families impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in India

PTI

April 06, 2020 / 12:14 IST

PepsiCo India, along with its parent company's philanthropic arm PepsiCo Foundation, will provide 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits and over 5 million meals to support families impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in India, the company said on Monday.

The food and beverages major on Monday said it has partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation for distribution of cooked meals, and with Smile Foundation for providing dry food ration to support meals for over 8,000 vulnerable families impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

This initiative is part of parent company PepsiCo's global programme called 'Give Meals, Give Hope'.

Further, PepsiCo India has partnered with the non-profit organisation Foundation of Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) for providing 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits.

FIND is the World Health Organization's (WHO) collaborating centre for laboratory strengthening and diagnostic technology evaluation. It works closely with the Indian government.

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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