Coronavirus pandemic | Around 25,000 Indians register to repatriate from Bahrain: Report

Under the Vande Bharat Mission, over 8,000 Indians have already left Bahrain

Moneycontrol News

July 08, 2020 / 12:37 IST

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, around 25,000 Indian workers in Bahrain have been registered to return to their homes under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’.

The government of India started the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ on May 6 to help its stranded citizens in abroad due to the novel coronavirus pandemic reach their destinations via international repatriation flights.

Under the mission, over 8,000 Indians have already left Bahrain and around 25,000 have been listed for home return, reported Gulf News citing an official source at the Indian embassy in Manama.

Repatriation flights on July 8: Daily updates on arrivals, departures under Vande Bharat Mission

Indians constitute the biggest expatriate community in Bahrain, with 450,000- to- 500,000 people from India living there, the report suggested.

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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