COVID-19: Kuwait’s steady vaccination campaign leading to herd immunity

Kuwait City: Dr. Khaled Al Saeed, a member of the COVID-19 committee, said that Kuwait’s vaccination campaign is on track and the country will be achieving herd immunity very soon.

As of Monday, according to data revealed by the government, of the 4.27 million population, around 2.51 million citizens and residents have received at least one jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kuwait has been working on vaccinating as many people as possible by increasing the number of daily doses administered to around 100,000 and by setting up new vaccination centres. In the past few weeks, Kuwait inaugurated two new vaccination centres, both located in densely populated neighborhoods.

As part of the strategy, the Ministry of Health began vaccinating children between the ages of 12 to 15 last month.

Of the 67,000 children who have registered around 50 per cent have received the first dose. The Ministry of Health is aiming to vaccinate 280,000 children who are eligible within the age group.

According to local reports, children are showing up in large numbers to the vaccination centres. The government is likely to move forward with its plan to resume in person learning starting in September.

The large number of people willing to get vaccinated possibly coincides with the new measures implemented by the government that restrict certain activities to only those who are vaccinated.

Entry into malls, restaurants, gyms, saloons and cinemas are contingent on receiving the first or both jabs.

As for travel, residents are only allowed back into the country if they had two doses of vaccine approved by Kuwait’s Ministry of Health. The authorised vaccines are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Kuwaitis are barred from travelling outside the country if they have not received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.