Vaccination drive to pick up pace

Covid vaccination resumes on Sunday after Eid al Adha holidays and four days of total lockdown. The immunisation drive will get a boost as the Sultanate is expected to get 3 million doses of vaccines by August and September, according to a top Ministry of Health official.

Vaccination for people aged above 18 years will restart at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday, and those who are eligible to receive the jabs under this target group can register online, according to the ministry.

Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health, said recently that no one will be left without vaccination. “Many companies have reserved doses for their expatriate employees. If expats who are not covered by any scheme, the Sultanate will vaccinate them for free."

The Sultanate has vaccinated 35 per cent of the population till date, with expectation to reach 55 per cent of the target categories or 2 million people, after Eid al Adha, according to Saif al Rawahi, Director of Infectious Disease in the ministry. “We also expect to receive 3 million doses of vaccines by August and September,” he added.

"We will resume the vaccination drive, which was stopped due to total lockdown, on Sunday. All eligible under this category can complete their registration procedure starting on Saturday morning," a statement from the ministry has noted. Registration can be done by logging on to http://covid19.moh.gov.om and getting their name enrolled in the vaccination registry at the OCEC.

As for the Sultanate, the initial results of the evening lockdown showed a substantial fall in the number of new Covid-19 cases. According to Ibrahim al Maimani, an analyst, the cases admitted into hospitals declined by 23 per cent, from 1,214 cases to 933. Patients in ICUs declined by 18.5 per cent, from 444 to 362.

Al Maimani stressed that if the vaccine campaign went on with a rate of 80,000 per day till August 15, we will reach 72 per cent of the target population sooner.

This comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it is expecting that the mutated Delta variant of the coronavirus will become the dominant strain in the world in the coming months.