KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health announced Tuesday that it will inform those who got the first jab of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine about the new date for their second shot when the country receives a new shipment of the vaccine. Ministry Undersecretary for Public Health Bouthina Al-Mudhaf said that the decision was taken as the vaccine producers, particularly AstraZeneca, may delay the delivery of the new shipment due to the growing global demand for the vaccine. She assured that the ministry had not taken a decision to change the type of vaccine in the second shot.

The Ministry of Health had announced Tuesday recording 1,253 new coronavirus infections and 11 related deaths in the previous 24 hours. The new figures took the total cases in the country up to 279,085 and deaths to 1,601 respectively, noted the ministry's spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad.

He pointed out that some 1,213 more people had been cured of the virus over the same period, which raised the total of those who have overcome the disease to 262,582. He added that the number of people hospitalized with the virus stood at 14,902 as of Tuesday, with 207 of them in intensive care units.

Dr Sanad revealed that some 8,899 swab tests were conducted over the same period, bringing the total to 2,360,837. He renewed calls for nationals and expatriates alike to abide by health precautions to curb the spread of the virus. - KUNA