Saudi Arabia adds Sinopharm and Sinovac to list of approved COVID-19 vaccines

The Sinopharm and Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines have been added to Saudi Arabia's list of approved vaccines, bringing the total number to six. According to the Saudi Gazette, the Saudi Ministry of Health has approved six vaccines, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.

People who have two doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac have to get a booster shot

According to the ministry, any other vaccines that receive approval will be publicised through the proper channels approved by the Ministry of Health and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) at the appropriate time. Two doses of separate vaccines, on the other hand, can be administered because international health studies have shown that they are both safe and efficacious. The second dose should be taken at least three weeks following the first. Ministry also said that people who have received two doses of Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccinations have to get a booster dose of one of the Kingdom's other recognised vaccines to get the vaccination accepted in Saudi.

Saudi Arabia has also relaxed Covid-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated citizens. It is only applicable to people who have a valid residency permit (Iqama) and left the Kingdom on an exit and re-entry visa after receiving two doses of the Covid-19 vaccination from Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi Gazette.

On Tuesday, the ministry announced 353 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the total number of cases to 542,707.
There are currently 4,377 ongoing cases, with 1,108 of them being critical. 72 were in Riyadh, 66 in Makkah, 41 in the Eastern Province, and 26 in Madinah, according to the newly recorded cases. There were seven more deaths linked to the coronavirus, increasing the total to 8,497.

Approx 13 million people are fully vaccinated

According to the government, 456 people have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of people who have recovered to 529,833. Saudi Arabia has performed almost 27 million PCR tests to date, with 68,962 in the last 24 hours. So far, 34,686,940 people have been injected, with 1,573,907 of them being elderly. More than 13 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the ministry. Approximately 62.05% of the population has received one dose, and 37.70% has received both. At this rate, 70% of the population will have received both doses by October 9.

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