Jean Jabbour, WHO representative to Oman covid vaccine
Jean Jabbour, WHO representative to Oman, receives his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the Omani capital Muscat on December 27, 2020. Image Credit: AFP

Muscat: Oman’s Ministry of Health has issued a circular to private sector heads on the procedure for procuring COVID-19 vaccines for their staff.

According to the circular, companies and institutions in the private sector wishing to reserve vaccines for their employees must contract with one of the private hospitals or clinics authorised by Oman’s Ministry of Health to give vaccines. For companies with private clinics for their employees, vaccines will be disbursed directly provided the clinic has appropriate storage facility and other conditions as laid down by the MoH are fulfilled.

The price of a single dose of Pfizer vaccine has been set at RO20 (including the prices of serum, solution and needle) with an additional cost of not more than RO3 for administering the same. Vaccine reservation requests should be submitted through the prescribed form available online, along with the required payment. Disbursal of the vaccines that are booked will start from next month once the vaccine requirement from private sector have been received.

The Ministry of Health strictly forbids any company from financially benefitting from the sale or export of vaccines thus procured.