Saturday 21 / December / 2024
Muscat: The Ministry of Health yesterday began administering the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The second dose is being given to the target segments that received the first dose of the Pfizer-bionNTech vaccine over the past few weeks in different parts of the Sultanate.
After receiving the second dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 at Bausher Polyclinic, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Sa’eedi, Minister of Health, reaffirmed that no side-effects were reported among recipients of the first dose, noting that the number of doses stood at 38,900.
In a statement, the minister pointed out that the period separating the two doses is 3 weeks that can be extended to 4 weeks, a formality applicable at some countries of the world. He said that the first phase of the national COVID-19 immunisation campaign saw a large turnout.
The minister added that the level of coverage in Muscat governorate stood at 100%, while the rest of governorates in the Sultanate showed very high rates of coverage. He pointed out that the factor that limits vaccination in Oman is not the financial cost or logistics, but the availability of the vaccine, which sees a large global rush.
He hoped that more vaccines would be made available to cover the most vulnerable groups.
He pointed out that the new variant is very fast in spreading, but its riskiness is not different from the mother virus and its response to vaccination is the same.
The minister stressed that all individuals and communities should stick to precautionary measures to keep the virus at bay.
As many as 24,773 of target people were vaccinated during the first phase of the campaign targeting most prone segments like people suffering chronic diseases, the elderly and frontline operators.
The Ministry of Health will go ahead with the second dose and it will update the target segments through scheduled awareness programmes via the media so that all vaccinated ones could get the second dose within prescribed time-frames.
