Vaccine waiting period less than 5 days, Dr Al-Manea

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The waiting period for receiving vaccinations range from one to five days, said Dr Walid Al-Manea, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health. Bahrain, last week, had also raised its vaccination capacity to 31,000 doses through 31 centres all across the Kingdom. “We can vaccinate up to 31 thousand per day. However, a lack of commitment from people has brought this down to 26 thousand per day. We hope everyone to commit to vaccination dates to achieve maximum pace.”

Dr Al-Manea also said that people who fail to honour the vaccination time sent by text message are causing overcrowding and delay at the vaccination centres. “Full commitment of all is needed to avoid waiting at vaccination centres,” he added.

Bahrain, he said, vaccinated 90% of the people registered, of which 96% are first-timers. On vaccination capacity increase, he said this is by upgrading several existing centres like the Comprehensive Disability Centre in Aali, the Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa Specialised Heart Centre, and the sixth floor of the Salmaniya Medical Complex. The fourth floor of the Salmaniya Medical Complex is also receiving people for inoculation.

4,800,000 calls

Dr Al Manae also revealed handling 4,800,000 calls on its call centre number, 444, from February 2020 to May 2021. “Out of which, 163,000 calls were from people experiencing virus symptoms. A total of 102,500 calls or 63% of the total calls were from people who did not have the COVID-19 symptoms, which also delayed health workers from responding quickly to callers having genuine COVID-19 symptoms.” To relieve the pressure, Dr Al Manae said, callers should make sure to choose the correct options for their symptoms while calling 444.

Use BeAware app

Dr Manae also urged all to use the services available on the ‘BeAware’ Bahrain application or the Health Ministry website for general health services. He said the percentage of calls received for availing regular services is 49. Explaining, he said the call centre in May received nearly 700,000 calls, of which 32% were related to vaccination. People calling for report difficulties in using the BeAware Bahrain application reached 10%. About 7% of the total calls were for other inquiries.