• If people wait for one vaccine over another, the delay in taking the vaccine will decide their fate

By Sheain Fernandopulle

People are requested not to be choosy on COVID-19 vaccine brands that they should get but to take the first available vaccine at their earliest, Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena said yesterday.   

He said there is a tendency among some people to select the vaccine that they should get. “According to researches and studies on vaccines against COVID-19, all those vaccines can combat the virus and variants,” he pointed out.   

“We are living in a world where every day this pandemic rages on, leaving more and more people dead. Thus, the fastest way to get back to normalcy is to get vaccinated as early as possible,” Dr. Gunawardena underlined.   
He said if people wait for one vaccine over another, the delay in taking the vaccine will decide their fate. “When analysing COVID deaths, 70 - 80% of deaths are of unvaccinated people above 60 years of age,” he stressed.   
Therefore, the Health Services DG requested people especially those above 60 to take the first available vaccine from the nearest centre in order to protect themselves from the virus.