Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
Oman has received 27,000 doses out of the 370,000 booked in total of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Image Credit: AFP

Dubai: Oman has so far received 27,000 doses of the booked 370,000 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saeedi, Minister of Health, said on Thursday.

“The Sultanate has reserved more than a million doses of the vaccine through the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, and we hope a portion of the vaccines will be allocated in the future to the private sector for those wishing to travel and other groups, but that will be done after vaccinating the basic groups.”

Altogether, 22,000 vials have been distributed and the total number of vaccinated people in the Sultanate has now reached 22,749, the minister added.

Care units

During the peak period, the number of cases in intensive care units reached 219, but the decrease in cases came as a result of everyone’s efforts and commitment to precautionary measures, he said, adding that everyone should not become complacent and continue adhering to the precautionary measures.

People should continue wearing masks, abiding by preventive measures and maintaining social distancing and using sanitizers to keep the coronavirus infection at bay, said the health minister.