More than 400,000 register for vaccine in Saudi Arabia

More than 400,000 people from Saudi Arabia’s high-risk group have registered to receive the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine through the Sehaty app, according to the Ministry of Health.

“Participants who received the first dose of the vaccine are in stable condition with no issues arising,” said the Ministry of Health spokesman Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly. “We remind all that it’s vital that everyone receives their second dose (booster shots) in order to ensure full immunity against the virus.”

He said healthcare workers would maintain contact and follow up on the status of people who have had the first dose and give them appointments to receive the second, according to the schedule provided by the vaccination’s manufacturers.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a priming dose followed by a booster shot with an interval of 21 days between each in order to achieve a 95 percent efficacy rate to prevent or decrease the symptomatic effects of a COVID-19 infection.

At Sunday’s press briefing the spokesman also noted the change in the rate of infections across the Kingdom’s regions during the past two weeks.

Six of the Kingdom’s regions have shown some stability with a slight increase in numbers, up to 10 percent, whereas Riyadh, Qassim, Hail, Jazan and the Northern Borders have shown a 50 percent decrease in cases.

Baha and Jouf regions have shown an increase of 50 to 100 percent in the past two weeks. There were 162 new cases recorded in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, raising the total number of infections to 361,010. There are currently 3,010 active cases, 416 of whom are in critical care.

All regions recorded new case numbers below 50. Riyadh had 40, Makkah had 39 and Madinah had 30. There were 156 recoveries recorded, raising the total number to 351,878. The Kingdom’s recovery rate is 97.4 percent.

There were 10 more deaths due to complications from COVID-19, raising the total number to 6,122. There have been 33,275 PCR tests in the past 24 hours, raising the total to more than 10.6 million so far.

ARAB NEWS