Oman has booked 200,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, said Dr Ahmed Mohammed al-Sa’eedi, Minister of Health and member of the Supreme Committee tasked with tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Finance is not the only hurdle to the procurement of more medicine at a time firms scramble to produce enough drugs to meet global demand,” Dr Ahmed was quoted as saying in an Oman News Agency (ONA) report.

Dr Ahmed described the epidemiological situation in the Sultanate as “alarming”. He referred to “a surge in Covid-19 infection cases that began in Mid-January this year and is still persisting”.

Prior to that, the health situation was comfortable and enabled health establishments to resume normal operation. “But now, with cases of infection and hospitalization picking up, we are in for another spate,” said Dr. Ahmed.

The minister explained that the Supreme Committee’s decision to prohibit the arrival of travellers from certain countries was due to the fact that tests on such travellers showed many Covid-19-positive cases, some of which exceeded 20% of segments of travellers.

It is decided to add a category of a vaccination target group next week—people aged 60. He affirmed the first Immunization Campaign covered 95% of its target segments vaccinated against Covid-19—a total of 52,858 people.

He explained that the ministries of health and education coordinate about schooling during the second semester in the Sultanate and that appropriate decisions will be taken during the next meeting of the Supreme Committee.

Asked about prescribed home and institutional isolation, Dr Ahmed said that steps are under way to absolve those vaccinated twice of prescribed quarantine. He warned that vaccination, despite protecting patients, is no guarantee that such patients would not transmit the virus, at least for the time being.