Saudi Arabia's King receives first dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine on Friday in the NEOM economic zone, the state news agency SPA said.

The agency posted a short video that showed a medical staff injecting the king with the vaccine.

Saudi Arabia began inoculating people in the kingdom with a COVID-19 vaccine in mid-December 2020, becoming the first Arab country to roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

The health ministry said the programme would roll out in three phases, starting with people over 65 and those with chronic ailments or at high risk of infection.

People over 50 would be vaccinated next, with everyone else included in the third stage, the ministry said, adding that the vaccine would be free for citizens and residents.

The kingdom has reported around 363,000 cases coronavirus case with 6,278 deaths, the highest among the Gulf Arab states. But the kingdom has also reported a high recovery rate.

Although it began lifting restrictions several months ago, the country has so far avoided a new wave of infections.

According to official figures, Saudi Arabia has a population of more than 34 million.