IMMUNISATION DRIVE LAUNCHED
120,976 The Ministry of Health’s technical team has identified the target groups for vaccination in the first part of the two-phase campaign
MUSCAT: Oman’s Minister of Health Dr Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi launched the National Campaign for Immunisation against COVID-19 under the theme (Immunisation Is a Prevention) at Seeb Specialised Polyclinic yesterday.
Several undersecretaries of the ministry, as well as healthcare workers were present on the occasion. Among the first to be vaccinated were Dr John Jabbour, the Representative of the World Health Organization in Oman, frontline healthcare workers in the country, and members of the community.
Vaccination will take place in two stages. The technical team from the ministry has identified the target groups to be given the vaccine in the first phase.
They include the elderly, aged above 65 years, those with diabetes, people with kidney failure and those on dialysis, and those with chronic lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary syndrome (COPD), asthma, and interstitial lung disease.
Target groups of healthcare workers include ICU staff, those working in COVID-19 wards, employees with conditions such as diabetes, obesity (with a BMI more than or equal to 40), chronic lung disease, and those on dialysis.
Unprecedented investments
Given the urgent need for COVID-19 vaccines, unprecedented financial investments and scientific collaborations were involved in the development process, while
still maintaining strict clinical and safety standards.
“We want to vaccinate 60 per cent of our population: Omanis and non-Omanis,” said the Minister of Health. “The Ministry has put criteria on who should receive vaccines on a priority basis. We received the first shipment of vaccines on Thursday, December 24.
“Unfortunately, we did not get as many doses of the vaccine as we wanted, i.e. 15,600 doses,” he added.
“This will cover about 7,500 individuals. It takes a long time to make these vaccines, and I can understand some people are worried that we should have rushed to acquire them.
Efficacy
“But I want to assure everybody that while making these vaccines in a short period of time, safety or their efficacy are not compromised,” the minister went on to say.
“They went through exactly the same steps – the three clinical trials were conducted the same way, the number of participants in these trials was also high enough to reach the statistical efficacy that we are looking for.”