The National Vaccination Campaign kicked off last December and has been expanding in recent weeks to ensure the safety of the community. 

More than 507,743 people have now received both doses of Covid-19 vaccines, Qatar’s ministry of health has announced.

The latest statistics show that roughly 22.3 percent of the eligible population are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus, recording a new milestone for the country’s vaccination drive.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1,415,761 vaccine doses have been administered, the ministry added.

Statistics also show that from the eligibility groups, 84.5 percent of people over 60 years of age, 76.6 percent of people over 50 years of age, and 63.9 percent of people over 40 years of age have received at least one vaccine dose.

Some 39.9 percent of the total eligible population have received at least one dose. Recent statistics rank Qatar as ninth worldwide for its rate of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered per person.

The ranking accounts for the total number of vaccination doses administered per 100 people in the total population. It specifically looks at single doses, not the total number of people that have been fully vaccinated, according to Our World In Data.

In the Gulf region, Qatar ranks third with 40.24 per 100, coming in shortly after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with 93.8 and 59.28 respectively.

Qatar launched its inoculation campaign at the end of December but has in recent weeks ramped up and accelerated all efforts to protect the community amid a more severe second Covid-19 wave.

Eligible groups can now get both doses in more than 35 vaccination centres across Qatar, including 27 primary health centres, Covid-19 vaccination facilities at Qatar National Convention Center and in the Industrial Area, as well as two drive-through options at Al Wakra and Lusail.

Those who wish to take the second dose of the vaccine can do so without an appointment at Al Wakra and Lusail drive-through centres.

Since February, Qatar has been accelerating its vaccination campaign significantly to ensure more people are protected from risk, administrating over 160,000+ doses a week.

Last week, the ministry of health reduced the eligibility age to 35 years.

Read also: Moderna, Pfizer testing ‘tweaked’ vaccine to tackle deadlier variants

However, despite all efforts, the country is facing an alarming number of positive cases, hospital admissions and deaths.

Currently, Qatar has 20,251 active Covid-19 cases and has recorded 428 deaths since the pandemic started last year – a number that has increased drastically in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, health officials told Doha News that children in Qatar accounted for 13% of national Covid-19 infections last week.

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