Bhubaneswar: Terming masks as prime weapon against Coronavirus, the Principal Investigator Of Covaxin in Odisha, Dr. E.Venkata Rao on Tuesday said that vaccines cannot save all from the disease unless people mask up.
"Vaccines are effective but in a long term. If people want to ward off this second wave of COVID then they will have to strictly adhere to COVID norms and never ever go out without covering up their faces. Continues and appropriate use of mask is essential," said Rao.
Citing the carelessness of the people in public places, Rao said, “People tend to get careless in vacant areas and drop their masks. But they should remember if a COVID patient had crossed the area some minutes before, the virus present in the air could infect any person moving in after him.”
“As far as vaccines are concerned, the persons who are queuing up to take the first dose today will take the second dose after more than a month. And the antibody will take another month to crate in the body. So it is wrong to think that vaccine will make you immune from the second wave,” Rao said.
“Yes, it can save them from the third or fourth wave provided the virus had not mutated enough to cheat the vaccine generated antibodies,” warned Rao.
So, given the present circumstances, mask and COVID appropriate behaviour is the only thing that can save people from contracting Coronavirus,” he added.
It is worthwhile to mention here that, the number of daily Covid-19 positive cases continue to drop for the fourth consecutive day in Odisha. The State reported 9,793 fresh cases with 18 fatalities in last 24 hours. The single-day count had stood at 10,031 yesterday.
Khordha and Sundergarh continue to remain worst affected with registering 1511 and 1018 new infections in last 24 hours.