Qatar set to cross 4 mn vaccine doses milestone

Qatar is poised to cross a milestone of administering 4mn doses of Covid-19 vaccine today as the country has given a total of 3,990,966 doses as of Tuesday.The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in its daily bulletin noted that 26,431 doses of vaccine have been given in the last 24 hours taking the total number of doses since the start of the campaign to just about 9,044 short of the 4mn mark. The MoPH yesterday announced that 88.3% of the eligible population has received at least one dose of vaccine. This amounts to 76.6% of the total population of the country. With the current vaccination figures, Qatar is among the leading countries in terms of vaccinating the largest percentage of the total population.The healthcare leaders are urging every eligible person to get vaccinated at the earliest with the detection of the delta variant in the country. They have also urged those who have not yet been vaccinated to go for inoculation immediately, especially the vulnerable population such as the elderly above 65, pregnant women and children aged 12-15. They have noted that these categories of people are likely to face more complications if they are affected by the virus. Though children may not face such complications, they might face long period of illness and they are likely to transmit the virus to others. The head of vaccination at MoPH, Dr Soha al- Bayat had recently said, that the vaccination campaign is focusing more on these groups as the first two groups of people can develop more complications from the virus and the children can transmit the disease faster. Earlier this week, Dr Yousef al-Maslamani, medical director of Hamad General Hospital, through a video message on the MOPH social media channel said, “ With the Covid-19 delta variant now in Qatar, like most countries around the world, it is more important than ever to get vaccinated. This variant is very contagious and spreads fast. We have vaccines which are very safe and highly effective against such variants. Therefore, it is more important than ever to get vaccinated. Your support is important, and it makes us all safe if everyone gets vaccinated at the earliest.”