Saudi Arabia allows booster shot for individuals immediately after COVID-recovery

Saudi Arabia is allowing those infected with COVID-19 to receive the booster dose immediately after recovery, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday.

For those who did not test positive the booster shot is available three months after the second dose.

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On Thursday, the Ministry of Interior announced that all Saudi Arabian citizens traveling outside the country must take a third dose starting from February 9.

Exceptions to this rule include those younger than 16 years of age and citizens who have an exempt status on the Tawakkalna application.

Booster shots are now required to be considered “immune” in the country’s contact-tracing Tawakkalna app for people over 18 who were vaccinated more than eight months ago.

Simultaneously, authorities also passed a law mandating all arrivals into the Kingdom present a negative PCR or antigen test report within 48 hours before departing to and arriving in Saudi Arabia.

Those under the age of eight are exempt from the testing requirement.

On February 3, Saudi Arabia recorded 3,852 new COVID-19 cases and four virus-related deaths. A total of 699,069 COVID-19 cases and 8,947 virus-related deaths have now been recorded in the Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic.

A total of 57,843,209 vaccine doses have been administered in Saudi Arabia.

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