[Representative picture]

Kerala registered 12,868 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, pushing the infection caseload to 29.37 lakh as the toll mounted to 13,359 with 124 additional deaths.

As many as 11,564 people have been cured of the infection, taking the total recoveries to 28,21,151. The active cases in the state has touched 1,02,058, a state government release said.

In the last 24 hours ending 2 pm, 1,24,886 samples were tested and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) was 10.3 per cent.

So far, 2,31,98,55 samples have been tested. Malappuram accounted for the highest number of cases-- 1561, followed by Kozhikode 1381 and Thiruvananthapuram 1341.

Of the new cases,63 are health workers, 50 had come from outside the state and 12,112 were infected through contact. At least 3,91,232 people are under observation in various districts, including 24,949 in hospitals.

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 logs over 12,000 fresh COVID cases; Toll mounts to 13,359

As many as 11,564 people have been cured of the infection, taking the total recoveries to 28,21,151.

[Representative picture]