COVID-19: Saudis administer more than 19m vaccine shots

Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia has administered more than 19 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the Ministry of Health said.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mohammad Al Abdali, said earlier that reaching the immunisation of 70 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s population with the vaccine against COVID-19 means that the pandemic has been overcome, and that it will become something of the past.

US science officials such as Anthony Fauci have suggested it will take 70 per cent to 85 per cent coverage of the population with a two-dose vaccine for things to return to normal.

Expectations about when life might return to something like a ‘pre-COVID normal’ vary widely across the globe, according to a new World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey.

It found that, on average, 59 per cent of people expect something like ‘normal’ will return within the next 12 months.

But there were significant differences in different countries.

In Saudi Arabia, Russia, India and mainland China, over 70 per cent of adults expect life will return to a pre-COVID normal within a year.

In stark contract, 80 per cent of people in Japan think it will be longer, with more half in France, Italy, South Korea and Spain agreeing.

Differences emerged around the world about the return to something like a pre-COVID normal. Although more than half think it’ll happen within the next 12 months, one-in-five think it will take more than 3 years, while 8 per cent don’t think it’ll happen at all.

Opinions on when the pandemic will be contained also closely matched opinions on a return to normal — suggesting that people believe the two to be closely linked.

On average, 58 per cent of those surveyed expect the pandemic to be contained within the next year. Some countries — India, mainland China and Saudi Arabia, for example — are more optimistic. But, four-in-five in Japan and more than half in countries including Australia and Sweden expect it will take more than a year for the pandemic to be contained.