Coronavirus pandemic: PM Modi bans foreign travel for central govt ministers

The PM announced the temporary decree on a day when the government of India issued a fresh advisory asking all Indians to avoid non-essential travel of any kind

Moneycontrol News

March 12, 2020 / 17:17 IST

Image: Twitter/@MEAIndia

As the number of patients testing positive for coronavirus in India rose to 73, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that no central government minister will be allowed to travel abroad as a precautionary measure.

Beginning his message and appeal with a disclaimer, PM Modi took to Twitter on March 12 and wrote:

Say No to Panic, Say Yes to Precautions.
No Minister of the Central Government will travel abroad in the upcoming days. I urge our countrymen to also avoid non-essential travel. We can break the chain of spread and ensure safety of all by avoiding large gatherings. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 12, 2020

He further wrote:

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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