The second day of the vaccination campaign in Bhutan came to an end with more than 97,000 individuals receiving the shot against COVID19.
“This takes the total to more than 186,000. The figures are impressive and together, we are creating history on the public health frontier,” Bhutan Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Bhutan PM Lotay Tshering thanked the health workers and other support team, including De-suups stationed at 1,217 vaccination sites across the country.
The Bhutan PM said, “I understand that the inoculation process is literally ‘backbreaking’.”
Standing on the feet for long hours, dealing with hundreds of people and ensuring highest level of care and response throughout the day is not easy, he said.
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“And yet, we have done immensely well and wish you the same motivation in the coming days. I am also in touch with the Dzongdas and local leaders who are facilitating in every way possible.”
“I am also happy to report that we don’t have many cases of severe reactions and a few who suffered seizure for various reasons are also stable and doing well.
“Thank you for all your heartfelt efforts and cooperation. Like His Majesty highlighted during the 2019 National Day, we have to take advantage of our smallness. This is one of those moments today,” Dr Tshering further said.
In an earlier Facebook post, Bhutan PM Dr Lotay Tshering, who is himself a physician said: “It is normal for a person who received the vaccination to experience conditions like fever, body ache and nausea for a day or two.”
For your understanding, these conditions appear after six or eight hours of injection and lasts for about almost 24 to 48 hours, he added.
The science is that the vaccine has parts of SARS-CoV-2 that will initiate reactions similar to COVID in our body, Dr Tshering said.
“But it is only to trigger immune response within the body, and will not go on to become a full-blown disease, as viral parts are incapacitated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the 30 minutes of monitoring at the site following the injection is mainly to pick hypersensitivity of that person to the vaccine.
“This is the only life-threatening condition that can arise from the vaccination, or any injection and medication for that matter,” he said.
It usually happens within 10 or 15 minutes of the injection. All hypersensitivity reaction, an extreme form of allergy, can be easily picked and treated by our health staff at the vaccination sites. They are also equipped with the required medications and gears. We had one such case yesterday but everything is under control, he added.