DN Special: Dr. Al Khal shares specifics of a vaccination campaign for teachers
- 3 years ago
Here is what the country's most senior health official COVID-19 told Doha News, from vaccinating teachers in Qatar to the introduction of the first Moderna vaccines.
On Thursday, Qatar achieved a new milestone in its vaccination program, with health officials announcing the administration of over 100,000 vaccinations, as well as the inauguration of more vaccine centers.
In an interview on Thursday at the most recent COVID-19 vaccination center in the capital, Doha News spoke to Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chairman of the National Health Strategic Committee on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at the Hamad Medical Corporation [HMC].
The interview was conducted at the Qatar National Convention Centre, where a new step in the country's inoculation program was announced by health authorities targeting teachers and workers at public and private schools across the nation.
“Teachers are essential workers, it’s important that they get vaccinated for the continuity of the education process and for schools to remain open. So that’s why they were given the priority and there’s a close collaboration between the ministry of health and the ministry of education,” Dr. Al Khal told Doha News at the inauguration.
“Most of all teachers” will be vaccinated in the next four weeks, with 8,000 shots expected to be given out per day when the centre is fully operational by the middle of next week, the health official revealed.
On Thursday, the center opened with a capacity of 50 percent with the hope of administering some 4,000 shots, Al-Khal said.
“Now, because we have enough vaccines to even double the capacity of the daily number of people vaccinated, the MoPH opened this vaccination centre. The idea of this centre is to significantly increase the daily capacity of people who can be vaccinated against COVID,’ Al-Khal added.
Strategic plan
As part of the country's National Strategic vaccination strategy to tackle the current coronavirus pandemic, the new vaccine center is also included. The campaign was initiated on December 23, funded by the Ministry of Public Health [MoPH], when the first batch of Pfizer vaccines landed in Qatar. By the end of this year, the inoculation drive aims to vaccinate residents and people in four stages.
“In those four phases, there’s progressive inclusion of different categories of the population,” he said. “No country has enough vaccines for their whole population, he added, to explain why the campaign was split up into phases.
The strategic plan also calls for priority groups to be vaccinated, especially those at the highest risk of infection, including the elderly, people with chronic diseases, and key staff.
“The country procured enough vaccines to cover the entire population. Now that the vaccine deliveries are increasing, the ministry of health needs to increase its ability to administer the vaccine. When we started, we started in seven health centres and then the ministry of health expanded to the 27 health centres,” said Al-Khal.
Who got the vaccines?
While the new center will begin vaccinating teachers, it will soon expand and include the opportunity for more community members, including school administrative personnel and key staff.
“This centre is not only for teachers, but we are starting with teachers because of the nature of their role, but other members of the community and other essential workers will get their vaccines here in the centre,” said Dr. Al-Khal.
According to the official, teachers eligible for vaccination will be contacted via text message, adding that the centre is only accessible by appointment.
“[The list] starts with teachers of nursing schools, primary schools, teachers of schools for children or students with special needs, and then it will go up,” stated Dr. Al-Khal.
He added that both ministries of health and education are targeting teachers in public schools and private schools, saying that “they will be treated equally and will be given equal priority”.
Moderna vs. Pfizer debate
The Pfizer shots, which Qatar first acquired in December, will be obtained by teachers at the QNCC vaccine centre. An original, small-quantity shipment of the Moderna vaccine has already been shipped to Qatar for testing, Dr. Al Khal also revealed, although it has yet to be rolled out to the public.
More deliveries of new vaccines are expected in the coming weeks.
“The Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine are more or less the same in terms of efficacy and safety and people are given any of those vaccines should take them and they should not try to take one over the other,” he said.
Are schools behind the surge in cases?
Since the beginning of the year, Qatar has seen an increase in regularly registered incidents, with fingers pointing at schools for the increase in numbers. This has sparked calls for the shutdown of schools and the transition of classes to virtual learning, with parents sharing fears about possible threats to their children.
Dr. Al-Khal, however, denied these charges, stating that the cases are not passed by schools but through group activities that students then take to their educational institutions.
“If you look at the data that is collected by the ministry of health and the epidemiology of the virus in the country and where the most positive cases are, it doesn’t support it. The students are members of the community and what happens in schools is a reflection of what’s happening in the community,” he said.
If the pandemic is regulated within the population, the Qatari health official added, it will impact positively on schools.
“It’s not to say that you cannot catch the infection and school and bring it home, it does happen, but it may not be contributing much to the spread of the virus in the community,” he explained.
The official said they are included in the strategic plan when asked if students will be next in line to get vaccinated, but this depends on the ages and health conditions.
Are children immune?
Responding to concerns about parents slacking on precautionary measures with their children, Dr. Al-Khal noted that while young age groups are more immune to serious infection, they must stick to mask policies.
“I advise all families to do their best to have their kids wear masks, even small kids at school, even those in primary schools because that’s safer for both the families and the children,” he said.
He also recommended that even outside of classrooms, children retain their masks.
Future expansion
Dr. Al-Khal briefly discussed an imminent expansion plan during our interview but did not reveal any information about it.
“We have some future expansion plans that we will announce when the time is right, about where people can get their second shots…but I do not want to spoil the excitement that comes with the news,” he told Doha News.
Dr. Al Khal firmly encouraged community members to continue adhering to precautionary measures as the inoculation program ramps up a notch.
“It’s very important for the community members to adhere to all the preventive precautions even after taking the vaccine because we are not 100% sure yet that the vaccine will prevent from getting an infection without symptoms and transmitting them to others…at least the community is immunized.”
Just hours after the interview, the Qatari authorities announced a significant new adjustment to their mandatory quarantine travel policies, specifying that on arrival from abroad, citizens who have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccinations will be exempted from quarantine.
After the second dose is given, at least two weeks must pass, the MoPH said, noting that a negative PCR test is expected upon arrival in Qatar.
“The quarantine exemption is valid for a period of three months, starting 14 days after the second dose, and this may be extended in the future with the availability of more clinical evidence,” a ministry statement said.
They do need to quarantine those vaccinated in other countries.
Doha registered 462 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total number of current active cases to 9,569.
Qatar had a COVID-19 fatality rate of 0.14 percent, one of the lowest in the world, considering the relative rise in coronavirus cases.
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