As of yesterday evening, the health ministry has administered the first dose of the COVID vaccine to 472,139 individuals. This means almost 94 per cent of the total eligible population have received the vaccine. However, around 37,000 eligible population are yet to come forward for the vaccine.
According to the Health Ministry, more than 8,500 people reported having some sort of adverse reaction to the vaccine. This also includes 35 serious cases. All of them have recovered.
“Through reaching the unreached programme, we have reached out to more than 4,000 individuals living with disabilities. Some are very severe, bedridden, and some mild. So it’s fair to say, it was fairly a successful programme beyond our expectation and the credit goes to all of us,” said Dechen Wangmo, the Health Minister.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister says those who are not vaccinated will be under the surveillance of the Ministry.
“If you are not vaccinated you will be monitored by the Ministry of Health’s surveillance team and you will be subjected to periodic testing. This again is to prevent community transmission and to help us in the early detection of the outbreak. If you are not vaccinated, you will have to undergo testing even to get admission to a health facility,” Lyonpo added.
The Health Minister added it will also be difficult for them to travel abroad as many countries are making it mandatory to have vaccination records.
Kelzang Choden/ Kinzang Lhadon
