Mumbai's daily COVID count may cross 2,000, says minister Aaditya Thackeray

In the span of last seven days, the country's financial capital has seen an exponential surge in new infections. The per-day count on December 20 was 204, which increased almost on daily basis to reach 1,333 on December 28.

Moneycontrol News

December 29, 2021 / 17:06 IST

File image of Mumbai's guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray (Image: Twitter/@AUThackeray)

The daily COVID-19 count in Mumbai may cross 2,000 today, Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray said on December 29.

Thackeray's statement comes a day after after Mumbai reported 1,333 new infections, at a positivity rate of 4.11 percent. The daily spike was the highest since May 26.

The city also accounts for 84 out of the 167 Omicron cases reported so far in Maharashtra.

In the span of last seven days, the country's financial capital has seen an exponential surge in new COVID-19 cases. The per-day count on December 20 was 204, which increased almost on daily basis to reach 1,333 on December 28.

The active caseload has climbed to 5,803, up from 1,904 at the start of this month.

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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