Qatar has been giving its all to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country has been successfully running its National COVID-19 Vaccination Program since December 2020.

​The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has announced that more than 57.3 percent of adults in Qatar have now received at least one vaccine dose. 

90.4 percent of the elderly over the age of 60, who are considered among the groups most vulnerable has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 84.7 percent of them received both doses of the vaccine.

28,287 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were given during the past 24 hours taking the total doses of vaccines given to community members since the beginning of the vaccination programme to  2,261,903.

Qatar is among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of vaccine coverage per population.

MoPH stated that it is very encouraging that there is clear evidence that the vaccines are protecting people from developing symptoms of COVID and becoming ill.

Data up to the end of April in Qatar showed that just 1 percent of COVID-19 ICU admissions have been for fully vaccinated people and in Qatar, non-vaccinated people of all ages are 91 times more likely to be admitted to ICU with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people.

Additionally, a study undertaken here in Qatar and published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that for fully vaccinated people – 14 days after receiving the second dose – vaccination is 89.5 percent effective at preventing infection from the UK variant and 75 percent effective at preventing infection from the South African variant, both are considered very high.

The same study also found vaccination to be 97.4 percent effective in preventing severe, critical, or fatal disease due to both the UK and South African variants. 

Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) teams continue to directly contact people who are eligible by SMS or phone call to arrange their appointment.

Recently, the Ministry has announced that parents will be able to register their 12 to 15-year-old children for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine starting today.

The announcement was made after Pfizer’s study indicated that its vaccine was safe and extremely effective in preventing COVID-19 cases in children aged 12 to 15.  

Anyone wishing to register their interest in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine can do so via the MoPH website. 

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Source: The Peninsula