New Covid-19 wave fear grips the Sultanate

Oman reported an exceedingly high number of cases and deaths on Monday as the health experts warned of the new wave across the world. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has reported 728 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases registered in the Sultanate to 151,528. With seven deaths recorded on Monday, the total death toll is now 1,629. Seventy-two were hospitalised during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of inpatients in hospitals to 356, including 104 in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). “The increase in the number of patients in ICUs is worrying and dangerous and the failure to comply with precautionary measures is one of the reasons for this’’, said Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health. Dr Al Saeedi said that the Supreme Committee has taken some precautionary measures during the past two meetings and more stringent ones cannot be ruled out if the epidemiological situation continues to rise.

ICU patients

He called on the target groups to take the vaccines and said there is a significant decrease in the number of ICU patients among those over 65 years after receiving the vaccine. Meanwhile, British drug major AstraZeneca announced positive late-stage trial results of its Covid-19 vaccine AZD1222 in the US. The company said the US trial met the primary efficacy endpoint in preventing Covid-19 at interim analysis. It demonstrated statistically significant vaccine efficacy of 79 per cent at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and 100 per cent efficacy at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation. In participants aged 65 years and over, vaccine efficacy was 80 per cent, it added.