HomeNewsTrendsCurrent AffairsSpiceJet joins actor Sonu Sood to bring back Indian students stranded abroad

SpiceJet joins actor Sonu Sood to bring back Indian students stranded abroad

Over 1,500 students stuck in Kyrgyzstan for over two months will be brought back over the next few days, says low-cost airline

July 23, 2020 / 19:06 IST
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SpiceJet on July 23 announced that it will be operating nine charter flights over a two month period to evacuate more than 1,500 Indian students stranded in Kyrgyzstan due to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic.

These flights, the airline said, will be operated in association with actor Sonu Sood, who has been lauded for helping stranded migrant workers reach their home.

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Calling Sood a "reel life and real life hero", Ajay Singh, the Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet, said both the actor and the airline have worked "non-stop to help our fellow citizens" through the nationwide lockdown.

"...I am glad that we have come together to help reunite Indian nationals with their families in these times of extreme crisis," Singh said.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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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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