COVID-19: Kuwait receives 2nd batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
An estimated 150,000 doses were part of the second shipment
Kuwait City: Kuwait received the second shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday and is estimated to contain around 150,000 doses, local media reported.
Starting this week, the vaccines will be distributed around various health clinics in Kuwait as the Oxford vaccine can be stored in regular refrigerators.
Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad, the spokesman of the Ministry of Health, clarified in a video on Saturday that, “while the second dose of the Oxford vaccine can be taken anywhere between 4 to 12 weeks, to achieve the maximum percentage of effectives it is recommended to take it on the 12th week and that is what we will be doing in Kuwait.”
Given that the first shipment arrived around nine weeks ago, on February 1, the current batch will either be given as a second dose in a few weeks or will be used to vaccinate those that have yet to receive the first shot.
Vaccine roll out
In recent weeks Kuwait has ramped out it COVID-19 vaccination campaign as it aims to vaccinate two million people by September.
So far more than one million people have registered to receive the vaccine, half of which have at least received the first jab. According to Al Sanad as of last week 604,861 doses of both the Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been administered in Kuwait.
To increase its vaccination efforts, last week Kuwait announced that it will be opening a drive thru vaccination center.