Repatriation flights tracker: Daily updates on arrivals, departures

The first two flights landed on May 7, carrying 363 passengers from the UAE.

Moneycontrol News

May 09, 2020 / 21:40 IST

The Indian government has started the first phase of repatriation of Indians stranded abroad due to COVID-19 lockdowns. About 64 special flights will bring back 15,000 citizens over the next week or so.

The flights will be operated from May 7 to 14 under the "Vande Bharat Mission". Indian citizens living in the following countries will be evacuated - Bahrain, UAE, Malaysia, USA, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Singapore, UK, Oman, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

These flights will also carry foreigners currently stranded in India and Indians settled in other countries back home on its way to these countries.

Elaborate arrangements have been made at various airports across India including the installation of thermal temperature scanning systems for passengers arriving from abroad.

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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