Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been following norms including social distancing and wearing face masks whenever stepping out in public. With the news of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, people are now hoping that they can finally get rid of the mandatory norms once they get vaccinated. But can we?

It seems that we cannot stop wearing masks anytime soon as cases across the country are still rising and the new COVID-19 strain is also here. As per Forbes, wearing a mask continues to be important as colder temperatures force us back indoors in closer proximity to others.

Not just that, there are several other reasons why wearing a mask is a necessity.

The vaccine might not be fully effective in the first shot

Yes, you read that right. You will have to wait for the second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to get immunized. A Business Insider report says that the Pfizer vaccine is only 52 percent at preventing the deadly COVID-19 after the first dose. The second shot which can be taken after three weeks will bring the efficacy up to 95 percent.

Meanwhile, the overall efficacy of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was 70.4 2 percent while Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN was “safe and provides a robust immune response”, Drugs Controller General of India VG Somani said.

You may not get vaccinated just yet

The vaccine will first be given to around one crore healthcare workers working in both government and private hospitals, front and municipal workers, people above 50 years of age. The full rollout of the vaccine will not happen overnight.

You don’t know yet who has or hasn’t been vaccinated

Areas with high COVID-19 people might get their vaccine shot before others. A lot of people are still skeptical if they want to get vaccinated or not. As mentioned earlier, you need to get two shots of the vaccine to get immunized, and it will be very difficult to judge who is where in their vaccination schedule, and it will be difficult to get an idea how well protected they are, as per Forbes.

Vaccination efficacy

A case was reported last week wherein a US nurse tested positive for the virus right after taking the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine, as per Business Line. Health experts are of the opinion that the vaccine takes up to 10-14 days to develop antibodies.

What is the duration of vaccine protection?

We don’t yet. Vaccines are rolling out one after the other and it gets all the more difficult to get any data about its effectiveness and if it will protect us for the long-term.

Re-infections taking place

There have been many cases reported that it is possible for people to get re-infected, says Forbes.

Need another reason to wear the mask? Well, it will take several months or even years to get back to normalcy and to get rid of those masks.