Delhi govt to hold meeting amid spurt in COVID-19 cases

The Delhi government will hold a meeting on Thursday to review the COVID-19 situation in the national capital amid a spurt in cases, officials said.

The meeting has been called by Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj which will see the attendance of senior health department officials, medical directors of state-run hospitals and other stakeholders.

The meet comes a day after Delhi's COVID-19 cases climbed to 300 for the first time since August 31 last year, while the positivity rate rose to 13.89 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

Two Covid-related deaths were also reported, it said. Delhi had reported 377 cases on August 31 last along with two fatalities, while the positivity rate was 2.58 per cent.

The city has been witnessing an increase in the number of daily Covid cases over the last few days amid a sharp rise in H3N2 influenza cases in the country.

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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The number of fresh cases had seen a decline over the last few months in Delhi. It had dropped to zero on January 16, the first time since the pandemic broke out. With the fresh cases, Delhi's infection tally has increased to 20,09,361, while the death toll stands at 26,526.