OmanHealth

Oman: COVID-19 vaccine to arrive on Wednesday

Oman Ministry of Health today confirmed the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Oman this Wednesday.

Sharing this information Badr bin Saif Al Rawahi, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases Control at the Ministry of Health, confirmed that the vaccine that will arrive in the Sultanate is the Pfizer vaccine manufactured using RNA technology.

The periodical quoting an official at the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that Oman’s Ministry of Health has been monitoring closely the situation and has made an evaluation of all the COVID-19 vaccines available around the world.

One of the conditions for Oman to use the vaccine is the vaccine’s approval from international organisations like EMA (European Medical Agency) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration, US).

A few days ago, UK became the first country in the world to approve vaccines made by Pfizer. Britain’s medicine regulator MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) approved the vaccinations, the roll out of which are reported to begin as early as this week. The UK has ordered 40 million doses, of which 10 million will be available soon, as per reports.

The Oman MoH official is quoted saying that since Pfizer is an American MNC, approval of FDA becomes imperative for the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer to be used in Oman, adding that the approval most likely will come through this week.

Approval from EMA would give it the necessary weightage in this regard. Once approved by FDA, the arrangements to import it to Oman would follow quickly, wherein Oman will receive the vaccine from Pfizer, as agreed upon, in the last quarter of 2020, as per our requirements, the official was quoted saying.

It is pertinent to note in this regard the words of Oman’s Minister of Health Dr. Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Saidi on many occasions including several virtual press conferences, about Ministry’s relentless consultation and negotiations with the manufacturers of the vaccine to ensure sufficient supply of the same to Omani population.

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