Saudi Arabia's king Salman gets first dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on January 8 received the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Sharing the footage of his inoculation by the health authorities at NEOM economic zone centre, Saudi's government press agency wrote on its official Twitter handle, "Custodian of the two holy mosques receives the first dose of the Corona vaccine." Meanwhile, Saudi's minister of health Tawfig AlRabiah also shared the footage of the Saudi king getting the coronavirus vaccine administered. "A picture speaking a thousand words," he said, adding that the kingdom was indebted for the support the leader provided to his citizens since the beginning of the pandemic. He revealed that the government plans to inoculate the population for free in a mass vaccination program. 

"Today, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques received the vaccine out of his desire to be immune to the virus. His initiative is an affirmation that the Kingdom firmly believes that prevention is always better than cure," Al Rabiah said. Saudi King Salman's vaccination comes as Saudi's Ministry of Health announced 97 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, surging the total number of infections to 363,582, and registered 6,282 covid-related fatalities.

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Saudi Crown Prince vaccinated

Earlier, last week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz received the country's first shot of the coronavirus jab in line with the Ministry of Health's national vaccination plan. Later, the Health Ministry asked the local population in an official statement to register for the jab appointments within 48 hours via a smartphone app “Sehhaty” or at the nearest centres. The country set up at least 550 inoculation centres across Riyadh, Jeddah, and the Eastern Province after it received the batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first shipment, according to the Saudi Health Ministry. 

On January 3, Saudi Arabia lifted all restrictions on the entry and exit of citizens by means of land, sea, and air transport. The move was aimed at relaxing the sweeping COVID-19 precautionary procedures in place to stem the spread of the new UK and South Africa variant. The Saudi government is now set to scrap the coronavirus-related travel ban that it announced on December 21. The reopening of the borders and resuming international air travel dates are yet to be announced officially, according to sources of Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

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