SIBU, April 18: Covid-19 vaccine helps to reduce the severity of the symptoms and infection rate and a person will only have antibody against the Coronavirus between two weeks to one month after vaccination.
Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee, in explaining this at his Sibu Covid-19 update via Facebook Live last night, said many people had the misconception that once they received the vaccine, they will not get the virus anymore.
Dr Annuar said this in reply to a viewer, Appy Afiza who asked on the effectiveness of the vaccine as he said people were still infected with the virus after being jabbed.
“There is a truth in it as there is a report of health workers being infected after receiving the vaccine,” he said.
Yesterday (April 17), Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 40 healthcare workers were infected with Covid-19 after being vaccinated. However they reported less severe symptoms.
According to Dr Annuar, all vaccines are not 100 per cent effective.
“The efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is only 95 per cent while the others are less than that. But vaccine helps to reduce the severity of the symptoms and infection rate,” he said.
The Nangka assemblyman said a person after being vaccinated will not have immediate antibody against the Coronavirus but between two weeks to one month.
“Most people have the misconception that after being vaccinated today, tomorrow they do not need to wear mask anymore,” he said.
Dr Annuar, however, said a thorough analysis needed to be done on the date to determine why there were people after being vaccinated, still got infected with the virus.
Separately, he regretted that there are still many teachers here who are not wearing face mask during teaching.
“I urge all teachers to always follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) by wearing facemask when giving lessons. Also do not gather in the pantry when having meals as cases had happened at the workplace,” he said.
The Jalan Disa Cluster which involved SK Agama yesterday recorded 20 cases. The index case was a teacher.
On the latest trend of the Coronavirus, he said it had spread widely in the urban areas now. This has posed a very high risk for residents in the town areas to be infected with the virus.
The Pasai Cluster had ended while Sibu Jaya has seen a significant decrease in cases after lockdown was imposed on the two areas.
“Residents in the urban area have a high risk of contracting the virus now. This can be seen in the daily data where the areas in the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) are recording an increase in cases,” he said.
Of the 95 cases reported in Sibu district on April 17, 65 of them were detected in SMC area, 13 in Sibu Jaya and 17 in Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) area. — DayakDaily
