Today we know that under normal conditions, COVID-19 antibodies in a person who had the disease should last for at least 9 months. The most recent study proved that 98.8% of sick people still retained enough antibodies to protect against reinfection after 9 months, regardless of whether they had symptoms during the infection period or not. If the number of people already vaccinated is added to the above statistic, we can understand that we are on the right track. However, the new variants of concern can always alter the maths and logic.

Currently, as vaccination programmes are at an advanced stage of implementation in Europe and North America, the governments of these countries are beginning to change their strategy in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The main shift is to put responsibility for personal protection from the virus directly on the population. Hygiene measures are relaxed for all vaccinated people, but maintained for those who remain unvaccinated, thereby limiting the mobility of the latter group. There is a sense of unfairness by those who have so far decided not to get vaccinated, but this group of people must understand that the proof of the vaccines’ efficacy is highly evident.

With this current new wave, fuelled by the ‘Delta variant’, the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths have dropped significantly. This impact prevents health services from falling into a state of collapse, and allowing other diseases to be diagnosed and treated during the pandemic.

In the previous waves, medical resources were deviated to attend to COVID-19 patients to such an extent that thousands of other diseases, such as cancer, remained undiagnosed and therefore not treated promptly.

Play your part; so many more of us have already played ours.

Keep healthy and stay safe.

29th July 2021