Vaccination beginning the end of pandemic

Sixteen days after the beginning of vaccination with 1.5 million vaccines donated by the Government of India, two million dozes of vaccines purchased from India arrived yesterday.
With the arrival two million dozes, our vaccination programme will gain momentum.
This time, people will be in the line-up for vaccination as the front-line health workers including health professionals, worker and volunteers have been received first doze at the beginning of the vaccination programme.
Now, are seeing the beginning of our victory against the pandemic that has infected over 141,000 and taken over 3,100 lives.
Our country has bought 30 million doses of COVISHIELD/AstraZeneca from India, of which about two million will arrive in the first week of February. Meanwhile, vaccines provided under the COVAX Facility will arrive in March and vaccines bought by the state budget will arrive in April.
The coming months can bring logistics, public relations and communications challenges for the government and health authorities.
About 70 per cent of our population will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021 and 2022.
We are confident that the experiences of the Ministry of Health and Sports and its health workers and experts in immunization programmes would make the coming national immunization programme against COVID-19 a success.
The first vaccination is not the end of the process, although it’s the beginning of the end. Those who are vaccinated still need to wear masks when they go into enclosed public places (including the vaccination sites) and they need to maintain a proper distance from others. They need to wash their hands frequently and show up when it’s time for their second vaccination.
We have a long way to go until the majority of our citizens are vaccinated, but we should all be grateful to see the progress being made and keep the faith that a return to normalcy is on the horizon.
But, all must follow the basic rules and regulations — including staying masked and socially distanced until we are out of the woods.