Bahrain to provide Covid-19 vaccinations free of charge

Kingdom has authorised the use of Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinopharm vaccines

Nurse Hyad Boina, left, prepares a syringe to use in the treatment of a patient in room No. 9 in his battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital, AP-HP, in Paris. AP Photo

This aerial picture taken in Mamak, district of Ankara, on December 10, 2020 shows graves in Ortakoy cemetery, the main burial site for people who died during the Covid-19 pandemic in Ankara, Turkey. AFP

A doctor wearing protective gears works at the intensive care unit of Szent Laszlo Hospital in Budapest, Hungary. EPA

A paramedic from Turkey’s 112 Emergency Healthcare services disinfects the ambulance after transporting a Covid-19 positive patient in Istanbul, Turkey. Getty Images

A nurse wearing face mask stands near a Christmas tree at the intensive care unit of Szent Laszlo Hospital in Budapest, Hungary. EPA

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban talk at the start of a two days face-to-face EU summit in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters

Wesley Wheeler, President of Global Healthcare at United Parcel Service (UPS) holds up an example of the Pfizer vaccine vial during a Senate hearing on vaccine logisitcs on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. Reuters

Social distancing bubble tents for dining are seen amid in New York City. AFP

Residents stand in line at a Covid-19 testing centre set-up in the grounds of the Richland Gardens housing estate in the Kowloon Bay area of Hong Kong. Bloomberg

The patient in room No. 10, is pictured hours before he died after his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 at Bichat Hospital, AP-HP, in Paris Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. The patient in room No. 10 died on Dec. 1. His was one of 775 virus deaths in France that day, adding to a national death toll now topping 56,000 and the worldwide count of more than 1.5 million dead. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Placards reading : "Be Courteous with the Staff" and "All Verbal or Physical Aggression with the Hospital Staff is liable to Criminal Prosecution" are adhered to a wall at Bichat Hospital, AP-HP, in Paris, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A woman wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus takes a picture of a lion statue with a face mask at a park in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. South Korea is expanding the use of rapid tests and deploying hundreds of police officers and soldiers to help with contact tracing as it deals with its worst surge of coronavirus cases since the early days of the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Bahrain will provide vaccinations against Covid-19 to the public for free, according to a directive by issued by the king, the state news agency said.

“A safe vaccine will be provided free of charge to all citizens and residents within the kingdom,” the Bahrain News Agency said, without elaborating on which vaccine would be offered.

Bahrain said last week that it had become the second nation in the world to grant an emergency-use authorisation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after the United Kingdom. It had already granted emergency-use authorisation for a vaccine made by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm and has inoculated about 6,000 people with it.

The Pfizer shots, a so-called “mRNA vaccine”, contain a piece of genetic code that trains the immune system to recognise the spiked protein on the surface of the coronavirus. The vaccine, administered in two doses over 21 days, was found to be 95 per cent effective during trials, the company said.

The Sinopharm vaccine is an "inactivated" shot made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it. The UAE said this week that its trials had found the vaccine to be 86 per cent effective.

Bahrain plans to inoculate everyone 18 years and older in the kingdom at 27 different medical facilities, hoping to be able to vaccinate 10,000 people a day, the BNA reported late on Thursday. The country has a population of around 1.5 million people.

Meanwhile, Egypt said it had received its first shipment of the Sinopharm vaccine, which landed at Cairo’s international airport from the UAE on Thursday.

The Egyptian health ministry said the government will first vaccinate health care workers, particularly those who deal with Covid-19 cases.