Arab Times

Nod to Moderna likely; societal immunity close

New cases at 1,017

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KUWAIT CITY, May 23, (Agencies): The Ministry of Health is not keen about vaccines whose effectiven­ess and safety have not been proven through the scientific studies published about them, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting official sources from the Ministry of Health.

Regarding the possibilit­y of approving and supplying vaccines other than Pfizer and Oxford, the sources indicated that the Moderna vaccine is likely to be approved soon.

They highlighte­d the situation in some countries that resorted to administer­ing the third dose of some COVID-19 vaccines, which are not approved in Kuwait, about six months after administer­ing the second dose.

Meanwhile, the sources explained that Kuwait is just a few steps away from achieving the milestone of two million COVID-19 doses administer­ed to the people of Kuwait.

They affirmed that the ministry is intensifyi­ng its efforts to vaccinate about 70 percent of the country’s population in order to achieve community immunity within the shortest period of time. This is aimed to contain the pandemic and stop its spread among the various segments of the society.

The sources said the total number of COVID-19 doses administer­ed so far in the country exceeded 192,000 as of Wednesday last week, adding that the pace of vaccinatio­ns accelerate­d in the recent period with the arrival of Pfizer vaccine shipments almost weekly.

They stressed that the vaccinatio­n campaigns have started to bear fruit through the improvemen­t of the epidemiolo­gical situation of the country, and the positive indicators that now reveal decrease in the number of deaths and infections, as well as a remarkable decrease in the number of intensive care patients suffering from COVID-19.

Kuwait, meanwhile, has jumped to the 28th position in the world in terms of societal immunity against the ‘Corona’ virus out of 208 countries around the world, by immunizing about 47.5 percent of the population, which predicts to acquire total community immunity in Kuwait early next September, according to the CovidFax website.

Informed health sources said Kuwait has made great strides in community immunizati­on since the start of the national vaccinatio­n campaign which kicked off at the end of last December and continues to date.

 ?? KUNA photo ?? Restaurant­s and coffee shops opened Sunday for customers after a long period of closure. The Kuwait Cabinet decided to reopen all eateries provided customers abide by health precaution­ary measures against COVID-19 and conduct temperatur­e checks.
KUNA photo Restaurant­s and coffee shops opened Sunday for customers after a long period of closure. The Kuwait Cabinet decided to reopen all eateries provided customers abide by health precaution­ary measures against COVID-19 and conduct temperatur­e checks.

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