Coronavirus wrap July 13: Yogi Adityanath asks officials to ramp-up testing in UP; Punjab bans public gatherings

Globally, more than 1.28 crore infections and over 5.68 lakh deaths have been reported due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Moneycontrol News

July 13, 2020 / 09:07 PM IST

India has recorded 8,78,254 cases of the novel coronavirus and 23,174 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest update. Of these, 3,01,609 are active cases while 5,53,470 have recovered.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of infections, followed by Tamil Nadu, and Delhi.

Globally, more than 1.28 crore infections and over 5.68 lakh deaths have been reported due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Here are all the latest updates:

>> Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to ramp-up coronavirus testing capacity to 50,000 tests a day.

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