A healthcare worker gives a dose of Covishield, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, to a woman at a hospital, in New Delhi. (Representative image: Reuters)

The Kerala government has included those who are going abroad for studies and employment purpose, in the prioritised group under the 18-45 years age category for the COVID-19 vaccination.

An immediate decision has been taken in this regard as many foreign countries have made vaccination compulsory for those arriving there for study and job purposes, Health Minister Veena George said here on Tuesday.

Besides them, 10 other categories were also included in the prioritised group and an order was issued for the same, she said.

Field staff of various government departments including food and civil supplies, postal, social justice, Women and Child Development, Fisheries and teachers assigned for the valuation of SSLC, Higher Secondary and Vocational Higher Secondary examinations were among those newly added to the prioritised group.

As many as 32 categories of people belonging to the age group were earlier included in the priority category after considering them as frontlinefighters against COVID-19. "However, there was a demand to include more categories in the priority group. Based on the recommendation of a state level committee, 11 more categories have been added," the minister 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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Kerala govt includes foreign job & study aspirants in priority list of COVID vaccination

An immediate decision has been taken in this regard as many foreign countries have made vaccination compulsory for those arriving there for study and job purposes, Health Minister Veena George said here on Tuesday.

A healthcare worker gives a dose of Covishield, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, to a woman at a hospital, in New Delhi. (Representative image: Reuters)

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