Enough stock of essential commodities, no need to worry: Amit Shah

"As the home minister of the country, I assure the public again that there is enough stock of food, medicines and other commodities in the country. No one should worry about that.

PTI

April 14, 2020 / 12:32 IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday assured everyone that there is enough stock of food, medicines and other essential commodities and no one should worry for the extended period of lockdown. In a series of tweets, the home minister also appealed to the affluent people to help the needy living nearby.

"As the home minister of the country, I assure the public again that there is enough stock of food, medicines and other commodities in the country. No one should worry about that.

आज जहाँ पूरा विश्व कोरोना वैश्विक महामारी से जूझ रहा है वहीँ प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के नेतृत्व में भारत की जनता ने इससे लड़ने में एक उदहारण प्रस्तुत किया है। सरकार द्वारा समय पर लिए गए सभी निर्णय और जनता की उसमें सहभागिता इसकी परिचायक हैं।
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 14, 2020

"I also request the affluent people to come forward and help the poor living nearby," he said.

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.

Show