Muscat: The Ministry of Health (MOH) will start the implementation of the National Immunization Coverage Survey for children in the age group 1.5 and five years, as well as their mothers in all the governorates from February 20, which will continue until March 20.
The survey aims to validate the results of routine reports and provide information, in addition to the number of people who have been adequately immunized at all levels (at the national, governorate, and wilayats levels).
It also aims to guide executive policies by presenting best practices, highlighting challenges that require interactive intervention to improve the performance of the national immunization program, and identifying the reasons for the delay in taking vaccinations from the scheduled appointments or the reluctance to take them.
The survey’s target is to visit 5,289 homes to obtain immunization data for 16,470 of the target groups, the category of children from one year and a half to five years of age in order to verify the immunizations data in different age stages according to the national immunization schedule, and the category of mothers who have children under the age of 5 years (to verify if they have vaccinated during pregnancy).
The field survey teams, which will introduce themselves and the purpose of the visit, and survey, will visit the randomly selected houses in the various wilayats of the Sultanate of Oman. The team will first ask whether there are target groups in the house; if any, verbal consent to start the survey will be obtained.
The immunization data of the target groups will be obtained directly from mothers or the child’s caregiver. The survey team will use an electronic or paper questionnaire form prepared in advance by the team to collect the required data.
The survey team will upload a copy of the immunization cards (pink for children) or (green for mothers) for documentation.
The presence of the child is not required during the survey. In case of an unvaccinated child, they will be referred to the nearest health institution.
No vaccines, medicines, or taking samples will be done during the survey.
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