COVID-19

VACCINE MANDATE PAVES WAY FOR SAUDI’S POST-CORONAVIRUS RECOVERY

Saudi Arabia’s decision to welcome tourists starting 1 August after a pause due to the pandemic, should boost economic activity.

“We focused our efforts during the pause on close co-operation with our partners in all sectors to ensure a safe return through which visitors to the kingdom can enjoy exploring its tourist treasures, important destinations and landmarks, enjoy unique tourist experiences and learn about the culture of generosity and hospitality characterising Saudi society,” according to the minister of tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb.

The kingdom opened its borders further after granting permission to travellers from the key market of the UAE, Argentina, and South Africa to enter the country.

“Citizens will be allowed to travel to the three referred countries, the source said, stressing the importance of adhering to all the precautionary and preventive measures adopted,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The loosening of border restrictions comes amid higher vaccination rates in the country aimed at protecting the local population.

Vaccination rates jumped after the Ministry of Interior (MOI) stated in May that attaining COVID-19 vaccinated status will be mandatory by August. Vaccination will be required to enter all economic, commercial, cultural, entertainment or sporting activities, in addition to all cultural, scientific, social or entertainment events.

The government also mandated that vaccinations will be a prerequisite to the use of public transportation, and entrance to public sector or private establishments, and public or private education facilities.

“The Saudi Ministry of Health succeeded in making available more than 14 million appointments through Sehaty App to obtain coronavirus vaccine during August only, coinciding with the imminent reopening of schools and its desire to provide the opportunity for all targeted, especially students, to obtain the vaccine,” the ministry said in a statement.

The total number of booked appointments in the same period exceeded 8 million, while the number of vaccine doses given to the age group (12-18 years) exceeded 4 million throughout August.

Just under 50% of Saudi citizens and residents have been fully vaccinated, according to Our World In Data, with 39.4 million vaccinations administered. As many as 16.6 million people in the kingdom have been fully vaccinated.

The country has been lauded for its strong measures to curb the virus, with average daily cases dropping to a few hundred, compared to thousands in 2020.

Saudi Arabia’s COVID-19 cases per million people is among the lowest among major emerging and developed economies, at 10.15 per million people.

 

COVID-19 APP

The Tawakkalna app, the kingdom’s health passport, which was launched by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), has played a critical role in helping streamline and facilitate vaccinations in the country.

The SDAIA has added new features including information about COVID-19 travel insurance policy, approved by Saudi Central Bank and the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance, to facilitate travel procedures.

“The health passport includes information about immunisation status, date and result of latest polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and the insurance policy and its validity, according to the latest update,” the government noted.

The Tawakkalna application issues the travel passport, which facilitates mobility procedures by providing all travel-related information in the health passport service. To utilise Tawakkalna services, SDAIA urged all users to update the app to the latest version.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has also integrated its system with the app to link boarding passes for domestic flights for all national airlines, so that boarding passes are issued electronically to passengers whose status in the application is either immune, immune by first dose, immune by recovery, or no record of infection.

In a further boost to vaccinations and economic recovery, Saudi Arabia added Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm to the list of approved vaccines. Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna are the vaccines available in the kingdom.

Individuals who are fully inoculated with the two Chinese vaccines will be accepted in the country provided they obtain a booster shot of one of the other vaccines approved in Saudi Arabia. The move is expected to benefit migrant workers who received Chinese vaccines in their home countries.

 

GLOBAL FIGHT

Globally, governments continue to fight the virus as it keeps flaring up in parts of the world. More than 5.69 billion vaccines have been administered worldwide, with 30% of the population, or 2.34 billion people, fully vaccinated.

The world still has a long way to go with emerging economies among the most unvaccinated in the world.

The World Health Organization, the IMF, and the World Bank are hoping to set high targets, calling on G20 countries to ensure at least 40% vaccination rates in every country by end-2021, and at least 60% by the first half of 2022, share more vaccine doses now with developing countries and provide financing and remove all barriers to export of inputs and finished vaccines, as well as other barriers to supply chain operations.