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Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced that deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine have been delayed, prompting health chiefs to reschedule some innoculation appointments.
The Ministry of Health said in a brief statement on the official Saudi Press Agency that there was a possibility that some first dose vaccinations would be postponed “due to the delay of the producing company in supplying the vaccine”.
The Ministry added that it will continue to implement the national vaccination campaign against coronavirus but did not give any more detail about the length of the delay.
It also said it plans to expand the launch of more vaccination centres to include all regions of the kingdom.
Last month, Saudi Arabia said it was still in talks with Russia and China to source coronavirus vaccines after the kingdom rolled out a program to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19 vaccination programme in December, with the health minister among those inoculated.
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Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19 vaccination programme in December
People aged over 65 as well as those with chronic ailments or at a high risk of infection will receive the vaccine in the first stage, and those aged over 50 in the second.
Everyone else will be vaccinated in the third stage.
Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 365,000 novel coronavirus cases, including more than 6,300 deaths – the highest among the Gulf Arab states. But the kingdom has also reported a high recovery rate.
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