Sunday, the Head of the Coronavirus Portfolio Wael Al-Hayajneh, announced that the Ministry of Health is about to launch the third phase of a detailed study of the prevalence of the pandemic in the Kingdom. The study will also aim to discover details of antibodies among Jordanian citizens, adding that the ministry also aims to seek the number of COVID-19 infections in the Kingdom since the start of the pandemic.

He explained that the examination of the new strain of COVID-19 remains conditional on whether the new variant has come from Britain to the Kingdom. He pointed out that the ministry would isolate the strain upon finding a positive case, and will conduct a virus genome sequencing test to find out if the new variant exists.

The estimated time to complete the genome test is seven to 10 days, he said.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Primary Health Care in the Ministry Ghazi Sharkas, told Petra News Agency that the study is the first of its kind in the Middle East, and it has been prepared and will be implemented by the Ministry of Health, with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO).

He added that the study will be carried out side by side with studying the spread of the virus among household residents and all who they have come into contact with, and with studying the risk factors of the coronavirus among health personnel.

He stressed that the study in its three stages comes to find out the percentage of primary infection before transmission, the rate of infection during community spread, and finally in the post-peak stage.

The last phase of the study will be implemented by 19 field teams in various governorates of the Kingdom. They will collect blood samples from different age groups and both genders to obtain efficient results. The number of participants in the study is expected to reach 5,000.

Hayajneh noted that the ministry has taken additional precautionary measures for those returning from Britain; which is done by following up daily with the travelers to inquire about any symptoms they could have and to conduct another PCR test on the seventh day of returning to Jordan.

The first batch of vaccines will contain 200,000 doses, which is enough for 100,000 individuals. He added that the priority will go to medical personnel on the frontline of combatting the pandemic and vulnerable individuals with chronic diseases, added Hayajneh.

He noted that the vaccine will arrive in Jordan in the form of successive batches, stressing that the ministry has contracted an amount sufficient for 15 percent of Jordanians.

The first batch will arrive to the Kingdom by the end of next month, according to Hayajneh.