Bahrain announces free COVID-19 vaccine for all

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain will provide all citizens and residents with Covid-19 vaccines free of cost. His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister announced this yesterday after chairing a remote meeting of the Government Executive Committee.

Distribution of the vaccines will be through 27 medical centres in Bahrain. The decision, the coordination committee said, is to vaccinate all those over the age of 18 years with 5,000 individuals per day at first, which would be raised eventually to 10,000 per day.

The National Medical Team also confirmed that Bahrain was keen to provide vaccines listed by the World Health Organisation and approved by the National Health Regulatory Authority.

The latest move follows Bahrain recently becoming the second nation in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use. Bahrain had also approved Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine in November for use by frontline workers.

Following the announcement, HRH Prince Salman said the kingdom was continuing its efforts to combat the pandemic in line with the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. His Highness said that the Coronavirus challenges have proved the awareness and responsibility of the people with their commitment to precautionary and preventive measures.

The Committee reviewed a report by the National Medical Task Force to Combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19), headed by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health, Lieutenant-General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, on the Kingdom’s national vaccination programme.