MANAMA: Citizens and residents in Bahrain aged above 18 can now register for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Bahrain also announced that it has approved a Chinese vaccine for the coronavirus.

The Health Ministry said last night that those interested in availing of the vaccine can register on healthalert.gov.bh.

It said that the move comes in line with efforts to “safeguard the community, through the provision of a safe vaccine”.

This follows His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince Prime Minister, on Thursday announcing that the vaccine will be provided free to everybody in Bahrain.

The vaccine will be distributed from 27 medical centres across Bahrain.

According to a report submitted by the Supreme Council for Health chairman Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, the country has a capacity to vaccinate 5,000 individuals per day, with plans to expand it to reach 10,000 vaccinations per day.

The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) yesterday announced it has officially approved the registration of Sinopharm’s vaccine, after the submission of all related documents by G42 Healthcare, the company’s exclusive distributor in the Middle East and North Africa.

The GDN learnt that the vaccine will soon be available to the public, “in an order of categories of the population that will be decided by the Health Ministry”.

The GDN reported last month that Bahrain had granted emergency approval for the use of vaccine on frontline workers, in a bid to protect those who are at high risk as they treat Covid-19 patients. This followed successful completion of phase three clinical trials for the vaccine.

Bahrain has also given emergency approval to the Pfizer vaccine.

Informed sources clarified that the first lot of the vaccine was “for emergency utilisation for front line, which was limited” while the present approval is “the full registration of the vaccine” which follows the study of the interim report and “can be used for other groups which the Health Ministry will decide”.

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