COVID-19 pandemic: Kerala makes face masks, social distancing mandatory until 2021

Amending the state Epidemic Disease Ordinance, the Kerala government issued new guidelines which will be effective for one year or till further government direction.

Moneycontrol News

July 06, 2020 / 07:15 AM IST

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The Kerala government on July 5 made it mandatory for people to follow COVID-19 regulations for the next one year.

Amending the state's Epidemic Disease Ordinance, the Kerala government issued new guidelines which would be effective for one year or till further government direction.

These norms include:

1) Everyone should wear a face mask or face cover in public places. Wearing mask in workplaces is also a must. Everyone must cover their face while travelling in a vehicle.

2) Strict maintenance of social distancing at public place is necessary to curb the virus spread.

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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