Kuwait aims to vaccinate 80% of population by September 2021

Kuwait aims to vaccinate 80 per cent of its population against Covid-19 by September next year after starting an inoculation campaign last week with the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE, a Health Ministry official said.

As of Monday, 2,500 people were vaccinated and second doses will be administered from January 14, said Dr. Ghada Ebrahim, director for Public Relations and Media at Kuwait’s Health Ministry. The Prime Minister was the first to receive the vaccine on December 24, “to encourage people to register online and vaccinate,” she said.

Read: Kuwaiti Prime Minister receives Covid-19 vaccine; says ‘safe to use’

Kuwait is home to about 4.8 million people, including more than 3 million expatriates, and has signed agreements to procure vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX programme.

In addition to the Pfizer contract, the country will soon sign a deal for the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, according to Ebrahim.

New shipments of the Pfizer shot will be delivered on a monthly basis. Pfizer and BioNTech have said their vaccine is 95 per cent effective in preventing the illness.

Also read: Dubai aims to vaccinate 70% of population by end 2021: Reuters