Unlock 5.0 rules for Karnataka: What is allowed, what is not

With 6.4 lakh COVID-19 cases reported as of October 5, Karnataka is the third worst-hit states in the country.

Moneycontrol News

October 06, 2020 / 08:54 IST

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released new guidelines for ‘Unlock 5.0’ on September 30, allowing more activities to open up outside of containment zones. The MHA also said that strict lockdown will continue to be imposed in the containment zones.

Karnataka issued its own guidelines on October 2 in which the state government allowed reopening of cinemas, entertainment parks and swimming pools for sportspersons after October 15, with 50 percent capacity.

However, the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the same would be issued by the State’s Information and Publicity Department and the Centre’s Information Department.

Also read | Unlock 5.0 Guidelines: From cinemas to restaurants; what’s allowed, what isn’t

The Karnataka government also allowed reopening of higher education institutions in the science and technology stream, where research scholars and post-graduation students need to access laboratories, from October 15.

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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