Mumbai, January 2

Major countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, among others, have started rolling out the coronavirus vaccines in their countries. However, health experts still recommend that people should sport a mask even after getting inoculated with the vaccine.

“I think, people’s perception is you get the vaccine and you’re safe, and finally we can stop all this masking and social distancing and stuff, but that’s not actually reality,” Debra Goff, an infectious-disease pharmacist and professor at the Ohio State University, told Business Insider.

The Business Insider report stated that the vaccine will not be fully effective right after the first shot. Patients will need to wait for the second shot.

Also read: Pfizer and BioNTech to offer Covid vaccine to volunteers who got placebo

So, in the meantime, “for the good of your fellow mankind, you need to continue to wear that mask”, and maintain physical distance from others, Goff said.

Earlier studies have also shown that the Pfizer vaccine is only 52 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 after the first dose. The second shot, administered three weeks after the first, will bring the efficacy up to 95 per cent.

Last week, a US nurse tested positive for the virus right after taking the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. According to health experts, this happened because the body takes 10-14 days to develop antibodies after receiving the first shot of the vaccine, as per previous reports.

Also read: California nurse tested Covid-19 positive a week after receiving Pfizer vaccine

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the use of masks has become universal and mandatory for young children as well. This also includes no immunity passport waivers for those who have had a vaccine.

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