More than 80% of Bahrain's eligible population receive first Covid-19 vaccine dose

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

One of the world’s vaccination leaders, Bahrain yesterday officially crossed the one million mark in administering the first dose of the anti-coronavirus vaccine, which accounts for more than 80% of the eligible population.

Official Health Ministry figures show that as of last night, 1,002,977 have received at least one shot of one of six free vaccines made available for citizens and residents, namely Sinopharm, Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca’s Covishield, Johnson & Johnson, Sputnik V and Sputnik Light.

The Health Ministry made the announcement through its official Twitter account, saying: “The Kingdom of Bahrain has surpassed the 1 million mark for 1st dose Covid-19 vaccinations, giving protection to more than 80% of the eligible population.” Subsequently, 823,489 people have now had both doses of a vaccine.

The Kingdom’s mass vaccination efforts aim to inoculate a total of 1.5 million residents, around 679,000 of them are expatriates and 712,000 Bahrainis and provide them with a high degree of protection against the deadly virus.

The Ministry said it had increased its daily vaccination capacity to 31,000 doses across its 31 vaccination centres. It is also expanding the vaccination campaign to include adolescents aged 12 to 17.

Just six months after receiving two shots of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, people in the Kingdom are being offered booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The country’s medical taskforce team said the third dose marks a new phase in vaccination and aims at protecting the health of the citizens and foreign residents. The booster is being recommended for people who are over 50, obese or have weakened immune systems.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Waleed Khalifa Al Manea said that Sinopharm accounted for 60% of vaccinations in Bahrain and that it offered high levels of protection. He said 90% of those being hospitalised in the current wave had not been vaccinated. The country will continue to offer a choice between Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech.