Qatar aims to vaccinate 90 percent of eligible population by year-end: Dr Al Khal
As Qatar continues to expand its National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, the country is targeting to vaccinate 90 percent of the eligible population by the end of this year.
Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation Dr Abdullatif Al Khal mentioned this during a virtual panel session entitled ‘An Injection of Hope: Do Vaccines Mean an End to the Pandemic Is in Sight?’
The session was part of the Education City Speaker Series held jointly with the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH).
“We aim to cover up to 90 percent of the eligible population before the end of the year. This means we have to vaccinate more than 100,000 people a week,” Dr Al Khal said.
Referring to the steps Qatar has taken in its fight against COVID-19, the senior health official highlighted that the country “approached pharmaceutical companies that were in advanced stages of clinical trials for vaccines. We are also a member of the Covax facility where we get a percentage of our vaccines from.”
The Covax facility was established last year to make sure every country has fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr Al Khal also underlined that the global shortage of vaccines was one of the initial challenges that Qatar faced when it launched its COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
“Current production of vaccines is a tiny fraction of what the world needs. Another issue is if we need to do it annually we have to work on a strategy for our future supplies,” he underlined.
Said to be the largest vaccination campaign in Qatar, the COVID-19 vaccination drive currently utilizes 27 health centers to administer the vaccine to people throughout the week from 7 am to 11 pm.
According to Dr Al Khal, the center at QNCC can deliver 8,000 doses a day.
“This has boosted our ability. We also trained nurses at different ministries and entities such as the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, oil and gas sector, Qatar Airways to administer vaccines. Now they are vaccinating their frontline workers at their own facilities,” he noted.
During the session, Dr Al Khal also revealed that the Ministry of Public Health has begun a new initiative for the elderly who cannot go to the health centers for the vaccination.
“Vaccine will be provided at their homes as well as to their close family members,” he said.
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