COVID-19 vaccination programme picking up pace

Due to the recent availability of larger quantities of vaccines, Qatar COVID-19 Vaccination Programme is picking up pace, said Minister of Public Health HE Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari.

“We are now administering more than 130,000 vaccine doses a week in more than 35 vaccination sites across Qatar,” she said.

Her Excellency also announced that a second drive-through vaccination centre will be opened in Al Wakra on Sunday, following the success of Qatar's first COVID-19 Drive-Through Vaccination Center in Lusail.

Addressing a press conference organised by the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, chair of the National Health Strategic Group on Covid-19 and head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation, said despite the acceleration of the vaccination programme, more time is needed to inoculate community groups who are over 16 years old, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Dr al-Khal also affirmed that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines approved in Qatar are effective against the new strains of Covid-19, and that there is a decrease in the number of infections among the groups that have received the vaccination, which is an indicator recorded in a number of countries of the world and reflects the effectiveness of vaccines that have efficacy levels of over 90% so far, QNA said.