JEDDAH: Saudi health officials have sought to reassure people over the interval between COVID-19 vaccinations as the Kingdom steps up its inoculation program with an increase in the number of vaccine centers.
Responding to questions on social media about the time period between the respective shots, the ministry said that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has three to six weeks between jabs, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot has eight to 12 weeks. More than 630,000 people have been vaccinated so far.
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance on Saturday temporarily shut down 10 mosques in five regions after 12 cases of coronavirus were confirmed among worshippers.
Virus cases have led to 168 mosques being shut temporarily in the past 20 days, with 153 reopening after precautionary measures were completed.
A total of 338 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, meaning 377,061 people have now contracted the disease.
FASTFACTS
377,061 Total cases
368,011 Recoveries
6,488 Deaths
There were 2,562 active cases, 475 of them critical.
The ministry recorded 320 new recoveries, taking the total to 368,011 while five new deaths were reported, raising the toll to 6,488.
Saudi Arabia’s recovery rate stands at 97.59 percent.
Almost 13.5 million PCR tests have been conducted in the Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic, with 39,707 carried out in the past 24 hours.