Coronavirus pandemic | Mexico City halts reopening amid surge in COVID-19 cases

Mexico City had been hoping to reopen hotels, restaurants and shopping centres. This has now been delayed until novel coronavirus infections drop.

Moneycontrol News

June 22, 2020 / 08:45 AM IST

A planned reopening of businesses in Mexico City has been delayed until coronavirus infections drop, its mayor has said. This came after COVID-19 cases surged in the Mexican capital, reports suggest.

For easing the lockdown as part of its 'traffic-light' system, Mexico City had been hoping to reopen hotels, restaurants and shopping centres on June 20.

Mexico City’s Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that the capital would remain at ‘red’ — the highest level of lockdown — until next week. Sheinbaum added that hospital-bed occupancy was at 65 percent and case numbers had not decreased to the point where opening the economy would be possible.

"The activities we announced... cannot open, we’re going to wait for the infections to reduce," the Mayor said.

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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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