More than a million vaccinated in Oman
Oman can achieve societal immunity when it has achieved a vaccination target of 60-70 per cent of the population, said Royal Hospital infectious disease consultant Dr Zakarya Al Balushi
MUSCAT: The total number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 amounted to 1,096,838, according to a statistic for the national campaign for immunisation against COVID published on July 5, 2021, by the Ministry of Health.
As of July 3, 2021, out of the total target population of 3.7 million people aged 12 years and over, the number of people received two doses against COVID-19 reached 22 per cent, and those who received a single dose of the vaccine reached 78 per cent of the total population vaccinated.
Speaking exclusively to the Times of Oman, Ibrahim Al Maimani, a social activist and a data ana
lyst, said, “The total of the vaccinated people in Oman to date reached 1,096,838 people, 30 per cent of the target group (aged 12 years and over), where the number of vaccinated with a single dose reached 855,534 people, 78 per cent of the total of the vaccinated, while those who took two doses amounted to 241,304 people, 22 per cent of the total of the vaccinated people.”
He confirmed that in seven days, 242,564 people were vaccinated at a rate of 34,652 people per day. If this rate continues, two million
people will be vaccinated until the end of this month of July, and the percentage will increase from 30 per cent to 56 per cent of the population in the Sultanate.”
Dr Zakarya Al Balushi, an infectious disease consultant at the Royal Hospital, also spoke exclusively to the Times of Oman about when the Sultanate can achieve societal immunity, “The Sultanate can achieve societal immunity when it has achieved a target of 60-70 per cent of the population.”
About the importance of receiv
ing the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr Zaid bin Al Khattab Al Hina’ai, Assistant Professor at the College of Medicine and Consultant Infectious Diseases at Sultan Qaboos Hospital, speaking to Shabiba FM, the radio station of Al Shabiba, which is the Arabic publication of the Times of Oman, said, “The latest study received from Britain on the effectiveness of vaccines against the Delta strain, states that the effectiveness is divided into two types, vaccines which are effective against light infection and severe infection.”