Bahrain is marking a new turning point in its coronavirus response, having double-jabbed close to 1.2 million people, or 80 per cent of its population.
As of Friday 1,197,515 people (79.83pc) have been fully inoculated with two shots of a vaccine of their choice while 1,227,953 have received at least one jab, which is 82pc of the total population of 1.5 million.
A total of 952,972 citizens and residents have also taken the first booster shot until Friday, accounting for 65.5pc of the total population … and some older members have even received a second booster jab too.
Experts had earlier said that countries would achieve ‘herd immunity’ and win the virus battle if around 80-90pc of the population had Covid-19 antibodies – either through prior infection or vaccination.
However, leading medics now say that the highly-contagious Omicron variant has drastically changed the equation, with herd immunity an unlikely dream. They say that new variants are – and would continue to be – capable of re-infecting people, both vaccinated and recovered.
Yet, there is hope.
Experts are now citing growing evidence of ‘hybrid immunity or super immunity’ – where vaccination and prior infection would evoke the ‘strongest immune response in the body’ thereby leading to a milder disease.
World Health Organisation Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office Infection Hazards Prevention manager Dr Abdinasir Abubakar said immunity among the population due to vaccination or infection does exist scientifically, however, was no longer relevant to Covid-19.
“In the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of talk about herd immunity – if we reached that level of heterogeneity, probably that will be the end of the pandemic,” Dr Abubakar told the GDN.
“But over time, the emergence of new variants, especially Omicron, has changed the equation as the mutants are able to re-infect the vaccinated and the recovered.
“New variants have different characteristics and different ways of infecting the cells. Like, the Omicron, has 24 mutations – so I think, right now, we cannot rely on immunity.
“We really need to push vaccination coverage because that it will help us to minimise and reduce the severity of cases and the number of deaths.”
American Mission Hospital pulmonologist Dr Chellaraja Chellasamy also pointed out the ‘evolving’ strains of the virus and its immunity response concepts over the past two years.
He cited two forms of immunity to Covid-19 – one, breakthrough infections following vaccinations and then, the natural infection followed by vaccination.
“Both forms seem to evoke an intense antibody response – so-called hybrid or super immunity – more so with the mRNA vaccines,” he said. “But currently Omicron and other highly-transmissible variants in future may have dimmed the concept of herd immunity in the sense that – vaccinated individuals still can shed the virus and can infect others, but the population in large may be getting very milder, manageable infections.
“The hope now is that Covid-19 may become endemic in populations with sporadic, manageable outbreaks now and then.”
Bahrain launched its national vaccination campaign on December 17, 2020 and offers four free vaccines – Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, Covishield-AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V.
The country has also maintained its effective TTT – Trace, Test, and Treat – policy, which tracks infected people and their contacts and helps curtail its spread.
As of Friday Bahrain has conducted more than nine million reverse transcript polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR) which are administered free over drive-through counters for close contacts and people chosen for random screening. It also includes paid tests done at private healthcare facilities. The country also has approved rapid antigen test kits that can be purchased from authorised pharmacies.
Meanwhile, Bahrain has been witnessing a significant drop in infections during the last week, after a rising graph since early January. Senior member of the National Taskforce to Combat Covid-19 Lieutenant Colonel Dr Manaf Al Qahtani had earlier said that cases were expected to flatten and then decline after hitting a peak.
The country is also touching almost 400,000 recoveries.
A total of 1,421 deaths have been registered until Friday, with this month recording 13 fatalities. Fourteen patients had died last month.
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