Yogi Adityanath

The current COVID-19 wave is worrying and people need to take all precautions and follow protocols, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday at an all-party meeting, which was not attended by Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in the state.

The meeting was held at the Raj Bhawan here, and Governor Anandiben Patel said the situation was grim and vaccination against COVID-19 should be ramped up.

An invitation was extended to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Leader of Opposition in UP Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary for the all-party meeting, but they did not turn up, according to sources.

"In the past one year, speedy action was taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in a planned manner. The fight was fought with joint efforts of everyone and in this, UP was fully successful. UP has done the best work in waging war against COVID-19. This had put an effective control over COVID, and the number of cases had become negligible," Patel said at the meeting.

"Now, the novel coronavirus has returned after changing its form, due to which the situation has become grim. Now, we have to take benefit of our past experience, and soon control the phase-2 of COVID-19, so that its spread can be curtailed. It is good that anti-COVID vaccine is available now, and the vaccination has to be effectively done," the governor said.

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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Second wave of COVID-19 worrying, people need to be extra cautious: Yogi Adityanath

The meeting was held at the Raj Bhawan here, and Governor Anandiben Patel said the situation was grim and vaccination against COVID-19 should be ramped up.

Yogi Adityanath

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