OMAN: Mass vaccination drive begins

Jun 05, 2021

The Ministry of Health will begin phase one of the mass vaccination from Sunday, covering the new target groups that were notified last week.

The new target groups will cover Haj pilgrims, all citizens of Musandam Governorate, people above 45 years of age, health workers (including private hospitals and clinics), all government employees, Royal Oman Police (ROP), Sultan Armed Forces, high diploma students and their supervisors, employees in oil and gas and airports.

All citizens and resident above 45 years of age will receive the vaccine from the third week of this month.

Meanwhile, several private health institutions, including Badr al Samaa and Oman International Hospital, have started vaccinating medical personnel, employees of companies and even foreign missions who have registered on the MoH portal.

Employees of the Brazil Embassy were vaccinated on Saturday at Oman International Hospital, including the counsellor and head of the trade promotion department, Lindolpho Cademartori Araujo.

The medical staff in private hospitals will be vaccinated free of charge with the Russian vaccine Sputnik. MoH said the vaccination period would continue for up to two weeks, both in the morning and evening.

The ministry also activated the immunisation centre helpline number 1144 for Muscat, operational all days of the week except Friday and Saturday, between 8 am and 2 pm.

The second dose of Covid-19 vaccines will also be administered from Sunday as per the timings and locations announced by the government.

A campaign will be launched to immunise the employees of the administrative apparatus units in the governorate at the Sports Complex in Rustaq between June 6 and 10, the directorate general of health services there said.

The General Directorate of Health Services in North al Batinah invited all targeted groups to receive the vaccine in various immunisation centres.

The Ministry of Health has refuted reports that companies with less than 60 people will not receive the vaccines. MoH assured all companies that their dues from the doses would be disbursed to the licensed health institutions contracted with them to carry out the vaccination process.

The 205,000 doses of vaccines that arrived last week will be followed by more than 100,000 doses of Pfizer and 148,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

The selection process of the vaccines in the Sultanate is based on a scientific basis after being licensed by the organisational bodies adopted in the country of origin and other international organisations, the senior MoH official has reassured.

The Ministry of Health seeks to cover the entire target population with the Covid-19 vaccine aged 12 years and over, which is equivalent to 70 per cent of the population, and it will be implemented in phases according to vaccine supplies in accordance with the national strategy for immunisation against the Covid-19 disease developed by the ministry.