Bahrain Offers Pfizer-BioNTech Boosters to Those Previously Vaccinated with Chinese Vaccine
Voice of America
Just six months after receiving two shots of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, some people in Bahrain are being offered booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The decision to mix vaccines comes as the Gulf state is experiencing a wave of virus infections despite having a very high per capita vaccination rate. The booster is being recommended for people who are over 50, obese or have weakened immune systems. Waleed Khalifa Al Manea, Bahrain’s undersecretary of health, told The Wall Street Journal that Sinopharm accounted for 60% of vaccinations in the country and that it offered high levels of protection. He said 90% of those being hospitalized in the current wave had not been vaccinated.
FILE - A truck is packed with crushed granite at a mining plant in Zamfara, Nigeria, April 21, 2016.
FILE - Tourists visit Roman ruins in Palmyra, Syria, on May 11, 2023. Syrian state-run media reported on Nov. 20, 2024, that a strike on the historic town killed 36 people. Syrian leaders blamed Israel.
Bannu, Pakistan
FILE - Migrants disembark at the port in Valverde at the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, on Aug. 26, 2024, after they arrived by boat from a 13-day voyage from the coast of Senegal.
A child reacts to an Unitree Go2 intelligent side-follow robot during a performance at a popular shopping district in Beijing, Nov. 17, 2024.
FILE - A convoy of army vehicles patrol the streets in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021.
Major General Kenneth Chigbu, deputy theatre commander of Operation Hadin Kai is shown with poses for a group photograph with Alice Loksha, left, and Fayina Ali at Army Barrack Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on November 15, 2024.
FILE - A Pakistani waits to open an internet page on a desktop in Lahore, Pakistan, Aug. 19, 2024. Pakistan's top cleric has declared that virtual private networks, or VPNs, are unlawful.
A Finnish soldier of the Karelia Brigade, one of the three Finnish Army readiness brigades, operates the K9 artillery, a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer during the NATO Exercise Dynamic Front, on November 17, 2024 near Rovaniemi, Finland.
This photo taken on November 18, 2024 shows Myanmar farmer Hla Han, 52, who lost his leg after stepping on a mine, peeling garlic outside his house in Demoso township, eastern Kayah state.
FILE - A student looks at Iran's domestically built centrifuges in an exhibition of the country's nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 8, 2023. Iran has increased its supply of uranium that has been enriched to 60% purity, according to IAEA reports seen by news agencies.