National Campaign aims to vaccinate 70 per cent of Oman’s population

Muscat: The National Campaign for Immunisation against Covid-19 will be able to vaccinate 70 per cent of the population by the end of this year.

A statement issued by The Ministry of Health (MOH) said: “The Ministry would like to clarify that the Sultanate adopted a strategy for immunisation against Covid-19, which depends on several phases. The number of persons who should take the vaccine has been calculated according to the risk factors such as old age and chronic diseases, as well as the ones in the frontline who serve the community like workers in the health and education sectors.”

The National Campaign for Immunisation against Covid-19 has been approved in two phases, for which 30 per cent of targeted groups are being vaccinated in the first phase, which will be completed by the end of August 2021. The second phase intends to vaccinate 40 per cent of the targeted groups by the end of this year so that 70 per cent of the population will be vaccinated, which represents the total number of the targeted groups.

Therefore, MOH has contracted with several firms to provide the vaccines in order to achieve the national Strategy for immunisation against Covid-19. With a view to enhancing the government efforts to curb the pandemic and as part of the social responsibility, a number of private sectors firms including oil, gas, telecommunication, flights companies, and banks have supported the national efforts to control the pandemic by providing medicines, personal protective equipment, and tests supplies, as well as bearing the costs of vaccinating their own employees.

Within the strategic partnership between the government and private health sectors, and due to the great efforts made by the private sector, it has been decided that these private institutions could participate in the national campaign for immunisation under the MOH conditions and regulations. These private institutions will administer vaccines for their employees along with the companies and authorities' employees. The vaccine prices were determined on the basis of the costs, shipping charges, storage, and logistics and according to the types of the vaccines and manufacturers' requirements.