Jaipur Literature Festival postponed to March amid surge in Covid cases

Jaipur Literature Festival: About 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons across the world are expected to participate in the festival this year.

PTI

January 07, 2022 / 15:56 IST

Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF): The festival this year will also witness a shift from its traditional venue Diggi Palace to Hotel Clarks Amber.

The 15th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), scheduled to run between January 28 and February 1, has now been postponed to March 5-14 in view of the rising number of Covid cases, the organisers said on Friday.

About 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons across the world are expected to participate in the Jaipur Literature Festival, which will be held in hybrid mode. It will be virtual from March 5-9, and in person from March 10-14.

"Keeping in mind the advent of the new variant and the sharp rise in the number of cases across the country, we have thought it best to reschedule the Festival and hold it in March 2022. We remain committed to bring the Festival back to Jaipur as an on-ground, immersive experience, promoting dialogue, discussion and debate on books and ideas," festival producer Sanjoy K Roy said in a statement.

India recorded 1,17,100 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday as the virus continues to spread at a blistering pace, largely driven by the virulent Omicron variant.

The festival this year will also witness a shift from its traditional venue Diggi Palace to Hotel Clarks Amber, Jaipur with added facilities to accommodate footfalls and follow COVID-19 safety protocols according to government guidelines. Turkish bestselling novelist Elif Shafak, Hollywood actor-writer Rupert Everett, award-winning Srilankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka, eminent Jamaican poet Kei Miller, Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut, 2003 Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre British and historian-biographer Andrew Lownie are among those participating in the event.

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