Qatar seeks to vaccinate all World Cup visitors

The Gulf state is in talks with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers

Ahead of its 2022 World Cup hosting duties, not only is Qatar spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure; government officials are also in talks with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to ensure all 2022 World Cup attendees are vaccinated.

Speaking during a virtual conference, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said: “Right now there are programmes under development to provide vaccination to all the attendees of the World Cup. We will hopefully be able to host a COVID-free event.”

The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) recently announced that the age threshold for the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility had been lowered to 35.

The change comes as part of the phased roll-out of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, which continues to gather pace with more than 1,200,000 vaccines now administered, covering 21.6% of the population, including Qatar’s most at-risk residents.