No Covid patients in Royal Hospital

MUSCAT: As a sign of significant improvement in the epidemiological situation, the Royal Hospital on Wednesday said that for the first time in eighteen months, the Covid-19 unit at the Royal Hospital (RH) had zero patients on Wednesday.

The last patient with coronavirus left the hospital today.

Oman also recorded zero Covid-19 deaths for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday.

While 22 new cases and 388 new recoveries were registered, statistics from the Ministry of health showed that there has not been any death during the last 24 hours as well.

According to figures released by the Ministry, the total number of positive Covid-19 cases reached 294,742 and the total deaths stood at 4,093. As many as 388 new cases have recovered.

Even as theCovid-19 situation has made remarkable improvement in the recent weeks, with a decrease in the number of deaths and infection cases, the ministry urged citizens and residents to show any slackness in the precautionary measures.

“Lenience could lead to another surge of cases of infection and hospitalization”, said Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health, while recalling that as many as 538 were admitted to intensive care units during the first peak in the Sultanate.

While in June, there had been 755 Covid-19 related deaths, in August, the toll declined to 251.At the same time, the number deaths stood at 29 during the last 20 days.

Vaccination is only one tool to stem the disease, said Dr. Ahmed, while stressing on the need to follow precautionary measures such as wearing face masks, maintaining physical distancing and other actions.

“Risks can be reduced by committing ourselves to precautionary measures, notably as an unvaccinated segment, children aged 6-12, joined classes in the new school year”, he said.

The vaccination rate in the Sultanate has reached very high with the percentage of Omanis vaccinated with a single dose has reached more than 97 per cent.

At the national level, the percentage of both Omanis and residents has reached about 74 per cent, he said, hoping that the vaccination rate for Omanis will reach 100 percent for the first dose by the end of this month.