 We are now more than one year into this COVID-19 pandemic. In this one year, we have had to adapt and change to the changing situation as the time goes on. The big game changer in COVID-19 is a vaccination. The availability of vaccines happened from mid-January 2021 and we as healthcare professionals were among the first people to receive the vaccine. The next in line came the senior citizens and then from March 1, 2021, all senior citizens above the age of 60 and people with comorbidities above the age of 45 began to receive the vaccine. Now, vaccination confers on us a degree of protection. Now the question comes that people have been asking me, the doctor, we have got elective surgery planned and we have taken one dose of the vaccine. What should we do? And very interestingly, a recent study has come out from Britain which seems to suggest that if we do elective surgery after completing the vaccination, then it dramatically reduces the chance of that person having contracting COVID infection within the hospital and prevents the chance of COVID-related complications in this patient who is having elective surgery for a different reason. In India, there are two vaccines available, Covishield as well as Covaxin, both of which have been approved by the regulatory authorities. Now, if you compare the vaccines worldwide, the one thing that all people agree on is that people who are vaccinated, the death rate among those who are vaccinated is extremely low, almost negligible. It is like less than 0.01% and the people with severe disease after vaccination is also extremely negligible. So while the vaccine may not give you 100% protection against contracting COVID, the chances are very high that if you do get COVID after the second vaccine dose after completing your vaccine, it's going to be a mild disease. The chance of hospitalization and complications is very small and the chance of death is almost zero. Four to six weeks after the first dose, if the senior citizen population and 45 plus population with comorbidities receive their second dose of vaccine, then that would make the elective surgery safer. They would come to the hospital with more confidence and we as healthcare professionals at Manipal Hospital Bangalore are already immunized completely. So we would be taking precautions from our side and the patients would feel safer and I would definitely recommend that if you have your elective surgery and you need it, don't postpone the elective surgery unnecessarily. Take the vaccine soon because most of you would be eligible having completed four or five weeks after the first dose and then come across and have your elective surgery safely and comfortably.