UNVACCINATED individuals are 14 times more likely to die from coronavirus infection, a senior Bahraini medic has warned.
He aims to ensure people do not relax precautionary measures despite promising news this week on the Covid-19 front.
The GDN yesterday reported that Bahrain recorded a new milestone with no Covid-19 patients under critical care on Tuesday, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic ... but members of the anti-vax brigade still risk serious illness, as well as spreading the virus in the community.
The National Taskforce for Combating Covid-19 monitoring committee head Lieutenant Colonel Dr Manaf Al Qahtani highlighted a global study which also reveals that the non-jabbed are four times more at risk of infection from the virus than the vaccinated.
“The strategy behind Bahrain’s Covid-19 success is based on six factors,” he said. “They are – early preparedness, central command centre, transparency, communication with the public, local data-driven policies and early intervention through testing and tracing, vaccination and booster doses roll-out.”
The study by US’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Covid-19 added that the incidence of Covid-19 complications among the unvaccinated was nine times higher than those who had received both doses of a vaccine.
Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani highlighted the study on Twitter, emphasising the role of vaccines in Bahrain’s success strides in combating the pandemic.
Bahrain launched its national vaccination campaign on December 17 last year and has vaccinated 1,155,518 people with two doses of a vaccine till date. This accounts to 77 per cent of the total population of 1.5 million, while 1,186,647 (79pc) people have taken at least one dose.
The kingdom would need to double-jab an estimated 1,200,000 people to achieve the ‘herd immunity’ milestone, which experts estimate would require around 80-90pc of the population to have Covid-19 immunity, either through prior infection or vaccination.
The CDC’s findings published last week are based on a study carried out from April 4 to October 21. “People who were unvaccinated had a greater risk of testing positive for Covid-19 and a greater risk of dying from Covid-19 than people who were fully vaccinated,” it said.
“Unvaccinated people in all age groups had higher case rates than fully vaccinated people in the same age groups.”
Bahrain offers free Covid-19 vaccination to all residents and citizens and provides them four choices – Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford and Sputnik V – while the country has also approved the single shots from Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik Light which are yet to be rolled out.
The kingdom has also vaccinated more than 80pc of people aged above 40 with a booster shot as an extra measure of protection against the infection, as of September.
Following this, the government has relaxed Covid-19 restrictions with Bahrain entering the green level – the lowest alert level under the Covid-19 Alert Level Traffic Light System.
The country offers a choice of Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinopharm booster shots to people aged 50 and above, who have completed three months after taking the second dose of Sinopharm, while others can take it after six months.
Children aged from three to 11 who suffer from underlying health conditions, and everyone in the 12-17 age group can take Sinopharm. The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) has also approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children in the 5-11 age group who will be able to receive the doses from next year. NHRA had cited that the ‘vaccination is 90.7pc effective for this age group’.
Meanwhile, Europe is now experiencing near-record levels of coronavirus cases, and could experience half a million Covid-related deaths in the next three months, according to the World Health Organisation.
Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director, said the surge in infections, driven by the Delta variant, is affecting all age groups. Three-quarters of those who died last week were not fully vaccinated.
Dr Kluge said the virus was surging because precautions like mask-wearing were relaxed and because too few people have been vaccinated.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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