AMMAN — The Minister of State for Media Affairs Sakher
Dudin said that some 1.588 million people have received at least one dose of a
COVID-19 vaccination in Amman. However, outside of the capital, a lagging vaccination
rate has some worried.
اضافة اعلان
Hopes were rising a month ago that the Kingdom would
be able to continue enjoying a safe summer and autumn, given a decrease in
positive
COVID cases at the time.
However, a recent rise in the number of cases has some
worried. In a phone interview with Jordan News, the Ministry of Health’s secretary
general for epidemiology and communicable diseases and the official in charge
of the coronavirus file, Adel Bilbeisi, said: "We were planning to reach
5.5 million citizens who received the vaccine ... but the new wave of COVID Delta
turned the scales. However, the increase in the number of cases we have is not
cause for concern.”
“If we look at the Eastern Mediterranean region,
from Morocco to Pakistan, we find that there is an increase in the number of
cases estimated at 67 percent per week, and 24 percent of deaths," he
added.
An official at the Ministry of Health, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, told Jordan News that “we aim to return to most aspects
of normal life in the beginning of September.”
However, the source added that this all depends on
the epidemiological situation. “If it gets worse, this will not happen. After
all, preserving people’s health is a priority,” they said. “We do want to work
all together to improve the economic situation in the country, but this will
not be at the expense of the epidemiological situation.”
That epidemiological situation may be slow to
improve if it is dragged down by sluggish vaccination numbers in rural areas. Isaac
Tawil, a doctor, told Jordan News that “it is important that citizens in
some municipalities in the outskirts take the vaccine too. The vaccination
percentage in such areas has now reached about 50 percent, and that is very
low.”
The doctor stressed that “we cannot say that we have
reached herd immunity while citizens in some areas have not taken the vaccine,
and are not willing to take it, too.”
The doctor stressed that authorities should do more
to educate people on vaccines and “encourage them to take it posthaste”.
“Jordan is not just Amman,” he said. “We have to
concentrate on less fortunate areas. People in some areas are not educated
enough to learn how to protect themselves from the coronavirus.”
The doctor added that “we are working on fighting
rumors against the vaccine — it is like a war, and we have to fight with all
our power to win this war, and reach the required percentage of people who got
vaccinated in all governorates.”
“We have had enough of this pandemic. Some people
have died, and some are still ill and suffer from worrying symptoms; besides
that, the economical situation has gone from bad to worse,” Tawil said. “We
shall work together to eradicate the virus, and taking the vaccine is now the
best and most effective solution that shall help us.”
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