Jordanians are hesitant but are not anti vaccine: Hayajneh

The Head of the Coronavirus Portfolio Wael Al-Hayajneh Wednesday told Roya’s Nabd Albalad that Jordan is negotiating with a number of companies to buy the coronavirus vaccine.

He restated said that Jordan finalized an agreement with Pfizer vaccine to obtain enough vials to vaccinate five percent of the Jordanian population.

Additionally, Hayajneh said that the Kingdom has already made an agreement with the COVAX alliance to vaccinate 10 percent of the Jordanian population. The COVAX alliance is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France to ensure equitable access to a vaccine.

Additionally, he said that Jordan is aiming to vaccinate 20 to 30 percent of the population.

Hayajneh said "In Jordan, people are hesitant, they are not anti-vaccine,” adding that it is the job of the Ministry of Health “to give people the exact picture about the vaccine with full data, transparency, efficacy, and safety.”

"We expect Jordanians will make the right decision in the end.”

Earlier Wednesday, the Ministry of Health issued a new COVID-19 report, which indicated the peak of the coronavirus cases in Jordan started in August, as 823 cases were confirmed during that month. In September, the Kingdom recorded 9,725 cases.

In October and November alone, Jordan confirmed more than 205,000 cases.

Despite that, the number of coronavirus deaths in Jordan remained low, as it ranged between 0.5 to 3.1 percent of the total number of cases.

Additionally, most COVID-19 cases in Jordan are among those aged between 25 to 34.