Oman has launched its Covid-19 vaccination campaign, two days ahead of its planned resumption of all flights and reopening of its borders that had been temporarily closed over concerns of new virus strains, state media said in a report.
"The campaign targets, in the first stage, the groups most vulnerable to the pandemic, including frontline workers, people with chronic diseases and the elderly," Xinhua news agency quoted the state media report citing a Health Ministry statement as saying on Sunday.
Oman, which has recorded the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the Gulf region, is the last of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to begin Covid-19 inoculation using a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Health Minister Ahmed Al-Saidi became one of the first citizens to receive a vaccine shortly after the campaign began on Sunday.
Oman has so far reported 128,472 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,495 deaths.
The country had suspended commercial travel and also banned entry and exit through its land and sea borders last week in the wake of the discovery of a new strain of the novel coronavirus in Britain.