Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

UK approves use of vaccine from Pfizer

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Muscat: It was a day of small triumph in the national and local fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. While Pfizer got approval for the use of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK, Oman also reported no deaths for the first time since the outbreak of the disease at community level from the second quarter of this year.


The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 237 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases registered in the Sultanate to 124, 145.


MOH reported no new Covid-19 related deaths, maintaining the total death toll at 1,430. It may be noted that in Oman the number of deaths started to peak from around mid and late July.


The total recovery cases reached 115, 613, which is 93.1 per cent of the total cases reported so far.


Only 14 people were hospitalized in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of inpatients in hospitals to 197. The fact that 105 patients are still in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) is a matter of concern.


MOH also announced the completion of the fourth round of the National Serological Survey.


"The Directorate General extends its thanks and gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this national work and extends its special thanks to citizens and residents and appreciates their positive role in the rapid response and contribute to overcoming obstacles to reach the desired goal of the survey and benefit from the final results in dealing with this pandemic. Whereas, we believe that the concerted efforts between the health sector, citizens and residents must bear fruit one day when the safety of the homeland and the safety of all its residents is the first and supreme goal," the MOH said.


MOH will announce the final results of the \serosurvey as soon as the laboratory tests are completed and the results will be analyzed in the coming weeks.


In Oman, the government said it has agreements to get access to vaccines which will be given to various segments of the population customers from the end of this month.


A working group following up developments in the field of manufacturing an anti-coronavirus vaccine, and to set up mechanisms to obtain the appropriate vaccine in coordination and follow-up with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and specialized companies, including that of Pfizer.


The Minister of Health, Dr Ahmed al Saeedi, recently said that a total of 1,800,030 doses were reserved for the Sultanate as a first batch, said the minister, hoping that the consignment will be received before the end of this year.


We hope to vaccinate about 60% of citizens and residents so that we could attain total immunity in the community,” said the minister.


Dozens of companies, from biotech start-ups to Big Pharma, are in the race to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, both to meet urgent medical need and for the potential payday.


A US-German collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech surged past a key milestone with Britain's announcement that it would begin rolling out its vaccine -- the first Western country to give the green light to an immunisation drive against the coronavirus.


Its drug is one of several candidate vaccines that have shown promising results in final stage clinical trials, raising hopes the pandemic that has already killed nearly 1.5 million people worldwide can be tamed.


The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 49 "candidate vaccines" at the stage of clinical trials in humans by mid-November, up from 11 in mid-June.


Thirteen of them are at the most advanced "Phase 3" stage, in which a vaccine's effectiveness is tested on a large scale, generally on tens of thousands of people across several continents.


Two frontrunner vaccines -- by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer -- have already sought emergency use approval on both sides of the Atlantic.


Pfizer and BioNTech have reported that phase 3 trials for their mRNA vaccine showed 95 per cent efficacy in preventing Covid-19 symptoms and did not produce adverse side effects among thousands of volunteers.


Britain said on Wednesday that its National Health Service will begin with 800,000 doses "early next week" and ramp up to "millions" of inoculations by the end of the year.


BioNTech/Pfizer, which said they expect further regulatory decisions for other countries in the "coming days and weeks", expect to roll out 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year.


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