Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been following norms including social distancing and wearing face masks whenever stepping out in public. With the news of vaccine rollout, people are expecting that once vaccinated they can finally get rid of the mandatory norms.
Thus, a question arises can we get rid of the wearing mask anytime soon?
At this time, there is currently insufficient information to assess whether or when the majority of the population will safely stop wearing masks and avoid close contact with others to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus but with the new COVID-19 strain appears to be here. We cannot avoid wearing a mask as soon as cases continue to escalate across the world.
Don’t Let Your Gaurd Down
“Another 12-18 months will be required before we can think of fully leting our defences down. Though India has begun the vaccination drive, the majority of the population would only be vaccinated in early 2022. We must be on our guards before then. It’s still necessary to wear masks, keep the social distance behind and avoid outside action,” quoted Bhatia.
He further added, “Vaccines might not be fully effective in the first shot and one has to wait for 3 weeks to get the second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. As vaccine rollout begins with plans to vaccinate as many people as possible, the fact of the matter is that not enough doses to vaccinate all populations exist till now.”
The vaccine might not be fully effective in the first shot
The vaccine’s effectiveness is not 100 per cent. In fact, with two standard doses, the Oxford vaccine has an efficacy of about 70 per cent, and research on Covaxin are still underway.
You don’t know yet who has or hasn’t been vaccinated
In order to get immunized, you need to get two doses of the vaccine, and it will be very hard to judge who is where in their vaccination schedule, and it will be hard to get an understanding of how well covered they are.
Don’t ditch your mask right away
Wearing a mask and maintaining good hand hygiene continues to be important because vaccines might not be fully effective in the first shot and one has to wait for 3 weeks to get the second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
As vaccine rollout begins with plans to vaccinate as many people as possible, the fact of the matter is that not enough doses to vaccinate all populations exist till now.
Therefore, even if the pandemic eventually comes to a halt, it is important to continue practising hand hygiene such as washing hands or using alcohol-based hand sanitisers and wearing a good quality mask.