Muscat: The Sultanate on Tuesday unveiled the details of the National Campaign for Immunization that will cover 70 per cent of the population over several phases, including those 12 years and above.

The new vaccination programme is a welcome decision, as the country continues to report over 1,000 cases daily and deaths in double digits.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported 1,047 new cases and 11 deaths. Ninety-seven people were admitted to hospitals across the country, bringing the total number of inpatients to 802, including 257 in intensive care units.

"Bader bin Saif al Rawahi, Director of the Infectious Diseases Control Department at the Ministry of Health, said that based on the agreements for vaccine procurement and the current supplies, it is expected to receive 1.4 million doses in June at a rate of 200,000 doses a week.

The new target groups for vaccination are General Education Diploma (GED) students (already started on May 26), health workers in private health institutions who did not take the vaccine, employees of the state's administrative apparatus, military and security personnel, will be vaccinated next week.

The new target groups (45 years and above) will be covered from the third week of June. The second dose for those who took the first dose 10 weeks before will also be covered during this period.

The staff and students of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, will be covered in July. Another target group will be vaccinated during the next month.

The government will open vaccination centres across the governorates, including mobile teams if necessary.

Al Rawahi said the vaccination campaign for Grade-12 students and related employees of the Ministry of Education started on May 26, with a coverage of 32,172 or 43 per cent of them covered in five days.

The 205,000 doses of vaccines which arrived on Saturday will be now followed by more than 100,000 doses of Pfizer and around 148,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

“Despite the positive response for the vaccination campaign, the coverage rate in some governorates is varying due to concerns of some older people and parents,” he added.

He said the selection process of the vaccines in the Sultanate is based on scientific bases after being licensed by the organisational bodies adopted in the country of origin and other international organisations.

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