The first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive has started in India on Saturday and with that came hope to go back to our normal lives when everyone was free to go anywhere, hug anybody, and party all night long. Well if you are someone who is planning the same, think again.

Doctor Shuchin Bajaj, Founder & Director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals that will start the drive from Monday, says that it’s not a good idea right now.

“I don’t think anybody should move freely without any safety norms for a year at least. With the vaccine, it takes at least 15 to 18 days after the second shot that you get after four weeks of the first shot then another two to three weeks after that so at least three months from the first shot to develop the significant antibodies which will protect you against the virus.

“ Also, till the time everybody is not vaccinated, we need to follow our SMS- sanitization, mask and social distancing and everybody has to keep precautions,” says Bajaj.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s coronavirus vaccine drive program via video-conferencing on Saturday. He said that there are over 100 countries with a population of less than three crore and India will vaccinate those many people in the first phase.

“In the second phase, we’ve to take this number to 30 crores,” the PM said, adding that only three countries (China, India and the US) have a population of over 30 crores. The inoculation drive started thirteen months after the first COVID-19 outbreak in China’s Wuhan