FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
The COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in quick time. Nobody could have expected it to be developed so fast, but it has been. Less than a year after the first COVID case was detected in the Country, India has two vaccines developed in laboratories in the country that have been rolled out to immunise the population to the virus that has already taken so many lives. The first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the Country and the State, giving some hope that the world will in the months ahead slowly defeat the pandemic that has enveloped the globe.
On Day 1 of the vaccine administration programme, 700 health-care workers in Goa were to be administered the vaccine at seven centres that have been authorised by the government, even as across the Country 3 lakh received the first dose. With 100 persons to be given the vaccine per day in each centre, Goa that has received 23,500 doses of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines that have obtained Emergency Use Authorisation, will see 700 persons a day inoculated. It, however, does not end with that one shot, and the second dose of the vaccine to be taken four weeks later is extremely important to develop the antibodies to fight COVID-19.
Vaccines generally take years, decades even to develop. But across the world there have been a number of vaccines that have been developed against COVID-19, and other nations have already begun administering the doses to their population. The speed in developing the vaccine has led to fears of the vaccine causing adverse reactions in the people have arisen, but these have been allayed by the government stating that the vaccines have been tested on thousands of people and that the side effects are negligible.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too stressed on this as he inaugurated the immunisation programme, stating that the vaccines were cleared for emergency use only after scientists and experts were assured about the ‘safety and efficacy’ of the two Made-in-India vaccines, and advised people to keep away from propaganda, rumours, or misinformation. However, besides the two doses of the vaccine, people are still counselled to take all precautions of social distancing and wearing of masks.
India has one of the most massive of tasks in the world in administering the vaccine to the people. It is a country of 1.3 billion people, has already had over one crore cases of COVID-19 and over 1.5 lakh people have lost their lives to the virus, and the new variant has been detected in certain cases. The current target is inoculating the entire population will take not months, but it could be years, for the immunisation programme also depends on the production of the vaccines. There is a long road still ahead before the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
After the dummy vaccine administration runs of earlier in the month, the programme got carried out in Goa with 426 healthcare workers getting the vaccine. The number of beneficiaries was expected to be 700 on the first day, but due to certain reasons, a delayed start being one of them, the target could not be met. Goa needs to improve its numbers, simultaneously adhering to all guidelines and precautions, if it is to keep up with the National pace.
It would, however, be a fallacy on the part of the people to believe that once the vaccine has been administered the danger of contracting the virus ends. The COVID-19 pandemic behavioural guidelines of social distancing and wearing of masks, as advised, cannot be discontinued. The world may come to a more normal lifestyle, but the threat of mutations of the virus exist, and are very real.
