No hospital admissions seen among vaccinated people in Oman

Muscat: None of the people in Oman who have been administered the COVID-19 vaccine have been admitted to hospital for the disease, a specialist on infectious diseases at the Royal Hospital has said.

“There are no cases we have seen of patients who have been admitted to hospital after receiving the vaccine,” said Dr Zakaria bin Yahya Al Balushi, consultant of infection and infectious diseases at the hospital.

He added, however, that the sharp increase in the numbers of COVID infections in the country proves that Oman has entered a new wave of the virus.

“The numbers of people admitted to intensive care because of COVID-19 reflect an alarming and disturbing increase,” he revealed.

“Previously, the number of patients we had here in intensive care did not exceed 10, but it is now at 18 cases. This indicates we have entered a new wave.”

The doctor also warned people who had previously been infected with the coronavirus to not take lightly the precautions that need to be followed to stop the spread of the disease, as there have been incidents of patients being admitted to hospital after being re-infected a few months later.

“Infection by COVID-19 for a second time is possible – this has been seen across many countries around the world, and we have come across this in Oman as well,” said Al Balushi, speaking to Oman TV.

“We have seen incidents of this in the Royal Hospital, where we observed a group of people who had previously recovered from the disease after receiving care.

“However, after a period of about three or four months, or maybe a bit more, they were once again infected with COVID-19, and were forced to hospitalise them again,” he added.

“We’ve seen a rapid rise in the infection curve of the coronavirus, which has caused much anxiety among all of us. For the first time in 152 days, the number of active cases in the country has reached 12,000.”

Najwa Al Rawahy, a nurse at the Royal Hospital, was of a similar opinion to the doctor. “The current situation in intensive care is very critical. That there has been an increase in the number of patients admitted to our hospital is evidence of the rate at which the virus is spreading,” she said.

796 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the country to 156,883, according to the Ministry of Health.