OMAN: National campaign for second dose from August 1





OMAN: National campaign for second dose from August 1

Jul 28, 2021

All eyes are now on the Supreme Committee tasked with tackling developments resulting from coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which will take a decision on restrictions. Today's meeting comes amid a fall in the number of coronavirus cases and the beginning of the national campaign for the second dose of vaccine from August 1.

One of the eagerly awaited decisions will be lifting a travel ban from some countries after some businesses sought mechanisms to be put in place for the return of expatriate employees stranded since April.

Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health, said on Tuesday the registration will start from Thursday for the second dose of vaccination to those who have completed 10 weeks of first dose. He said that the Supreme Committee will meet today to take future steps regarding the ban, provided that the precautionary measures are put in place.

He said that in the Governorate of Muscat, when the registration was opened on Sunday, there were slots to vaccinate 11,000 people, but only 8,000 registered and only 6,000 came for vaccination as per the system.

He warned that some people are still listening to rumours and are refusing to take the vaccines. "Most deaths are reported at the local and international levels are of people who are not vaccinated."

The minister said that there are many reasons that led to the decline in the number of infections, which include adherence to precautionary measures and a large number of people taking the jabs as vaccines are the only tool to confront this disease.

LOCKDOWN

Stressing that the results of the closure usually appear after 10 to 14 days, the minister said that the current results are promising due to partial lockdowns which have been in place.

He said the emergence of the ‘Delta’ variant had led to an alarming rise in the number of new infections, which had decreased between October 2020 and January 2021.

Dr Al Saeedi said that most of the infected cases in the Sultanate are due to the Delta variant which affects people of all ages, and added that the number of patients who have been admitted to intensive care units directly from their homes have also gone up.

The minister said the first dose vaccination for the age group 12-18 years will start before the end of next week. "Vaccination of 320,000 students aged 12 to 18 years will help them to return to classrooms for the next semester."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 548 cases and 14 deaths over 24 hours.

The total number of cases registered in the Sultanate has now reached 295,535, including 3,802 deaths.

A total of 63 patients were admitted to hospitals across the country in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of inpatients to 641 including 272 in intensive care units.

The total recoveries are 277,632 while the recovery rate is 93.9 per cent.


 














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