Real-Life Success: Overcoming COVID-19 through healthy life style and vaccination
How exercise and vaccination can help us win COVID-19
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- Mongolian
Galtsog Lkhamnorjin is a 66-year-old friendly, energetic, and healthy man who lives happily with his 64-year-old wife, Oyuntsetseg Luvsantseren in Zavkhan province, western part of Mongolia. He is a native of Zavkhan province and a retired officer from the public service, having worked for over 33 years in the province's Emergency department.
Since the couple's retirement, they have adopted a remarkably healthy lifestyle, jogging every morning and spending the majority of their time in the sports hall. They play a variety of sports, including volleyball, basketball, ping pong, and chess, and have even won a silver medal in the annual volleyball tournament held on Elders' Day. However, their favorite sport is badminton.
Galtsog and Oyuntsetseg are two of the fortunate people who have yet to test positive for COVID-19. The couple believe this could be due to their healthy lifestyle and full doses of vaccination.
Since the COVID-19 vaccine became available in Zavkhan in March 2021, they have received four doses. The couple is pleased with how the Mongolian Government handled the pandemic, and they are grateful to UNICEF for procuring COVID-19 vaccines, which enabled Mongolia to scale up the country's immunization campaign to protect its people.
Since the lockdown restrictions were lifted, the couple continued their exercise routine, deciding to persuade their friends to join them in the sports hall and also began organizing regular exercise sessions. Now, there are six couples who exercise and play sports together on a weekly basis, in addition to their running exercise every morning.
Galtsog mentioned that they frequently share their positive vaccination experiences with friends and family. There are those who value their experience and those who do not, but he wishes “people would expand their information sources beyond social media.” Oyuntsetseg adds that there has been a great deal of misinformation about COVID-19 inoculation, so it is important to separate myths from facts when deciding whether to be vaccinated.
Gunsmaa Davaatseren, the vaccinator at Bindergarav Family Health Centre, says that people were very enthusiastic about receiving the first and second COVID-19 vaccination doses, but not the booster doses. She assumes the stagnation in the vaccination rate is partly a consequence of misinformation about vaccines as people who came to her to get vaccinated asked lots of re-assuring questions about the vaccine’s development and possible side effects.
When a vast amount of misinformation is readily available, providing scientific, up to date information to the public has been a huge challenge. Therefore, UNICEF continues its partnership with the Mongolian Center for Investigative Reporters (MCIR), a group of professional fact-checkers, investigative journalists, and health professionals who identify false information and fake news regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and disseminate accurate and evidence-based information to the public.
Oyuntsetseg recalls, one day, on their way back from badminton, she noticed people queuing to get prescription medicines at discounted rate from the Health Insurance Fund. She was unaware that such welfare exists. “I am more than grateful that my husband and I are able to play outside and exercise at our age, protected from COVID-19 with the full vaccine doses, rather than waiting in line for medicine; that is our greatest achievement in life," she says smiling.
