Yet another milestone for Qatar’s health care sector. The State has ramped up its vaccination drive by opening more centers including the drive-through centers. The Ministry of Public Health said 327,582 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered since the start of the National COVID-19 vaccination Program.
“Ten percent of Qatar’s adult population has already received at least one vaccine dose. It is very important that everyone completes the vaccine by having the second dose to ensure its efficacy,” said Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari. Qatar is vaccinating its citizens and residents with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Both vaccines have shown high levels of safety and efficacy.
“Our decision to focus on the most vulnerable in the initial stages of the vaccination program has helped to ensure that we have been able to protect many of the high-risk, elderly population. We are now significantly expanding our vaccination program and have seen an impressive increase in the number of vaccines administered each week throughout the program,” the Minister addded. Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation, said: “Due to the availability of more vaccines and the opening of additional vaccination centers, including Qatar National Convention Center and the Lusail COVID-19 drive-through vaccination center, we have been able to widen the eligibility to include more sections of our population.”
Dr. Hanadi Al Hamad, National Health Strategy 2018-2022 Lead for Healthy Ageing, said: “More than half of Qatar’s elderly population have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 61 percent of people over 70 years of age and 55 percent of people over 60 years of age having received at least one vaccine dose.”
Getting vaccinated is easy: Vaccines are available in all 27 primary health centers and HMC homecare teams are vaccinating housebound patients in the safety and comfort of their own homes. Priority groups eligible for vaccination include people aged 50 and above regardless of their health conditions; people with moderate chronic medical conditions at any age; and additional healthcare professionals and other key workers in different ministries and government institutions, including teachers and administration staff in education.
Qatar has recorded one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world. Medical teams across the healthcare system in the state are working tirelessly to curb the spread of the virus. The State is administering the vaccines free to all people. It is just as important as ever that people continue to wear their masks and follow all the precautionary measures because people are still being admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
