Saudi Arabia's vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is now in full swing with approximately 15,000 people getting inoculated daily.
Thousands flocked to vaccine centers in Riyadh, Jeddah, and the Eastern Province. In Riyadh, approximately 10,000 people are receiving the injection daily.
Three weeks into the campaign, recipients of the first dose of the vaccine are being given the following booster shot.
Saudi Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on January 7.
The Ministry of Health, in a statement on Wednesday, said that 118 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number to 363,377 cases, including 2,206 active cases receiving necessary medical care. There are 351 critical cases with the health condition of the rest being declared stable.
As many as 144 cases have recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 354,899, said the ministry, adding that seven new deaths have been reported, bringing the total deaths to 6,272.
The Saudi Health Council, represented by the National Oncology Center, stressed the importance of vaccinating cancer patients and reaffirmed the inoculation’s safety and effectiveness.
“There are no scientific reports to date indicating harm from the internationally approved vaccinations for cancer patients,” the center said.
In order for the vaccine to be effective, the immune system of the vaccine recipient must be healthy in order to gain the necessary immunity to resist the virus upon exposure, the center noted.
It is worth noting that cancer patients were not included in the clinical trials of vaccines.
The center went on to encourage all cancer patients to apply for the vaccine through the Ministry of Health’s Sehhaty application.
