Unlock 4.0 rules for West Bengal: What is allowed, what is not

West Bengal government extended the COVID-19 induced lockdown in the state till September 30 but has relaxed curbs on metro rail services.

Moneycontrol News

September 01, 2020 / 15:56 IST

(Image: Metro Railway Kolkata, via Twitter)

After the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released fresh guidelines for Unlock 4.0 on August 29, West Bengal government too on August 31 extended the COVID-19 induced lockdown in the state till September 30 but has relaxed curbs on metro rail services.

Also read: Unlock 4 guidelines: What’s allowed and what’s not

Here is what is allowed to open:

>>Metro rail services will be allowed to function from September 7 in a graded manner, by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA)/ Ministry of Railways (MOR), in consultation with the MHA. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be issued for the same.

>>Social/academic/sports/entertainment/cultural/religious/political functions and other congregations will be permitted with a ceiling of 100 persons, with effect from September 21.

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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