Nagaland health dept underlines importance of vaccines
Dimapur, September 21 (MExN): The Nagaland Department of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday issued a press release underscoring the importance of vaccines against the different variants of COVID-19.
“Vaccination is the best protection against COVID-19. The main aim of vaccination is to break the chain between positivity and hospitalization or death,” it stated.
Explaining that the continued mutation of the virus that causes COVID-19 causes new variants to emerge, the department stated that the highly contagious Delta virus strain which was first identified in India in December, was a major worry at present. “In Nagaland, 99% of the result of samples sent for Genome sequencing are found to be of the Delta Variant of concern,” it said, citing the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).
While there are several other variants of COVID-19, the health department stated that the Delta variant, along with Alpha, Beta, Gamma variants have been classified as ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of their high transmissibility. For ‘Variant of Concern,’ clear evidence is available indicating a significant impact and rise on transmissibility, an increase in fatality and significant decrease in effectiveness of vaccines, therapy and other measures, it added.
Stating that the Delta Variant is “twice as contagious as previous variants,” the health department informed that the WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines continue to be highly effective at preventing severe illness and death, including against the Delta variant. Along with vaccination, precautions such as avoiding crowded spaces, keeping distance from others and mask wearing, still work against the Delta variant, it underscored.
Citing data from the IDSP, it also informed that in Nagaland, 78% of positive cases in the second wave are among the unvaccinated and 14 % of positive cases had received a single dose.
In this regard, the health department explained that while the vaccines protect most people from getting sick, no vaccine is 100 % effective and a person might get COVID after being vaccinated. This is called as breakthrough infection, and it doesn’t mean that the vaccines aren’t working or that something is wrong with the vaccines. “But the vaccine will give you a really good chance of not developing the disease,” it added.
Maintaining that the degree of severity of disease among people who have a breakthrough infection is less severe than the severity of disease among people who are not vaccinated, the department asserted that it is important to receive all the recommended doses of vaccines in order to have the maximum protection.
Further, the health department stated that “longevity of the immune response in vaccinated individuals is yet to be determined,” and as such, strongly recommended continuing the use of masks, hand washing, physical distancing and other COVID-19 appropriate behaviours.
