As the vaccination drive gains momentum, questions have emerged about appropriate behaviour after being vaccinated.

What does being vaccinated mean?

• Being fully vaccinated means a period of two weeks or more following the receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks or more following the receipt of a single-dose vaccine.
• In India, currently, both vaccines being used — Covishield and Covaxin — follow a two-dose regimen.
• Typically, the immune response takes a while to build up after a vaccine shot.
• After the first jab of a two-dose vaccine, a good immune response kicks in within about two weeks. It is the second dose that boosts the immune response.

Is the COVID threat averted?

• It is still unclear how long immunity lasts from the vaccines at hand now.
• Whether or not the immune response is durable, how it performs with the passage of time, and how long it lasts can be found out only by monitoring people who have already been vaccinated over a period.
• If the vaccinated individual is still carrying the virus, the vaccine may provide immunity from severe disease for him or her, but the individual could still transmit the virus.

What changes after you get a vaccine shot?

• After vaccination, one risk of severe disease from COVID-19 goes down dramatically.
• There is not enough evidence yet of vaccine response for some age groups, and vaccines are in short supply in the community.

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