98.4 percent of the people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Qatar, since the beginning of the national vaccination drive until March 28, have not contracted the virus, according to a senior health official.

Speaking to Qatar TV, the Medical Director of the Communicable Disease Center at Hamad Medical Corporation, Dr Muna Al Maslamani confirmed that only 1.5 percent of the people were infected after receiving their first or second shot of the vaccine.

Dr Al Maslamani mentioned that this data comes after monitoring over 40,000 people in Qatar who had been vaccinated until March 28.

د. منى المسلماني : 98.4 % ممن أخذوا اللقاح لم يصابوا بفيروس كورونا #المسافة_الاجتماعية #تلفزيون_قطر pic.twitter.com/igKtIOmmFq

— تلفزيون قطر (@QatarTelevision) April 12, 2021

The senior health official emphasized that people must remember to follow recommended precautions to stay safe.

While the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines both protect against COVID-19 and its new strains, neither of the vaccines is 100 percent effective.

“We still need more studies to see their effectiveness regarding the new strains,” she said.

Earlier, health officials had highlighted that the UK strain has contributed significantly to the spike in daily COVID-19 cases in Qatar.

In recent weeks, more than 900 cases have been recorded on a daily basis, which has been a cause of concern and had led to stricter restrictions across the country.

“In January this year, we monitored the number of cases admitted to the hospital in the acute cases unit which were about 7,796 cases, of whom only 57 cases had been vaccinated. The number of cases who entered the intensive care unit was 1,160, and only 7 of them were vaccinated,” Dr Al Maslamani said.

The health official also encouraged people to donate plasma to help other more serious patients who cannot take other medication due to certain health issues.

“We suffer from a shortage of plasma and we call on those recovering from the coronavirus to donate plasma through the Communicable Disease Center at Hamad Medical Corporation,” she said.

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Source: The Peninsula