Last Updated : Oct 02, 2020 09:33 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

Coronavirus wrap October 2 | US President Donald Trump, First Lady test COVID-19 positive; vaccine not before 2021, say experts

Globally, more than 3.4 crore infections and over 10.1 lakh deaths have been reported due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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LIVE updates of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact on India and the world
LIVE updates of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact on India and the world

India has recorded nearly 64 lakh cases of the novel coronavirus and 99,773 deaths. Of these, more than 9.4 lakh are active cases while over 53.5 lakh have recovered.

Across the country, 10,97,947 samples were tested for the novel coronavirus on October 1, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally remains the highest among Indian states and Union Territories.

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Globally, more than 3.4 crore infections and over 10.1 lakh deaths have been reported due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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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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Here are all the latest updates:

>> US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19. This was after Hope Hicks, one of Trump's top aides, had tested positive for the disease.

>> On a day when the state reported its highest single-day cases, Kerala government imposed Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), prohibiting the assembly of more than five people to control the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.

>> Active COVID-19 cases in the country have remained under the 10-lakh mark for the 11th consecutive day, Union Health Ministry said.

>> An effective vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall of 2021, according to experts working in the field of vaccine development.

>> Reliance Life Sciences has developed an RT-PCR kit that promises diagnosis of COVID-19 infection in about two hours, company sources said. At present, COVID-19 RT-PCR test, which is a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, takes up to 24 hours to provide a diagnosis.

>> Australia and New Zealand announced a partial opening of their borders to travel between the neighbouring countries.

>> The second sero-survey of SARS-CoV-2 in Mumbai has found that only 27 percent health workers have developed antibodies despite being in constant contact with COVID-19 patients, the city civic body said. 
First Published on Oct 2, 2020 09:33 pm

tags #coronavirus #Current Affairs #India