COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Oman on Wednesday

Oman Ministry of Health today confirmed the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Oman this Wednesday.

Sharing this information Badr bin Saif Al Rawahi, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases Control at the Ministry of Health, confirmed that the vaccine that will arrive in the Sultanate is the Pfizer vaccine manufactured using RNA technology.

Plans are already underway on the impending distribution of the vaccine and training the health workers across the Sultanate in all its governorates. Al Rawahi stressed the need of resorting to precautionary measures, apart from the use of vaccines, which has been proven effective in eliminating epidemics like smallpox and polio.

Many countries are in the race to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine due to the sheer need and demand, and some companies are in their advanced stages of clinical trials while others are awaiting approval from internationally accepted bodies for emergency use, he said.

Scientific institutions

Rawahi stated that the Sultanate, represented by the Ministry of Health, consulted a number of scientific institutions and international organizations for procuring COVID-19 vaccine. Oman was also in direct dialogue with a number of companies, and that aided greatly in obtaining the vaccine before the end of this year, he said.

While a national strategy has been prepared to ensure vaccination coverage for 60 per cent of the population, the first stage will necessarily be targeted at the 20 per cent of the most vulnerable groups, due to the limited supply.

The target groups in the first stage are the ones that are most vulnerable to disease, including frontline workers, the elderly, diabetics, people with chronic lung disease, patients with kidney failure, and workers in Intensive care departments for COVID-19 patients.

The vaccine will be administered in two doses given in a span of 21 days. The names of vaccination centers and modalities will be announced during the next few days.