Coronavirus pandemic | HCL Noida employee tests positive, co invokes COVID-19 contingency plan

All the other employees working in the facility are in good health, said the company, adding that they are being monitored continuously.

Moneycontrol News

March 19, 2020 / 04:55 PM IST

live

bselive
nselive

Volume

Todays L/H

IT major HCL Technologies has assured its employees about their safety after one of their colleagues in the Noida facility tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The employee infected with COVID-19 developed a mild cough and was in self-isolation for the past 14 days on the advice of the doctors, the Noida-based company informed in a circular issued to its employees, a copy of which Moneycontrol has reviewed.

“We understand that this will worry you, and can assure you that we have completed the necessary checks and procedures that follow such an incident,” read the circular.

The company further stated that “all prescribed protocols of sanitization and contact tracing” had been done.

Coronavirus LIVE updates

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.

Show