BY Izah Azahari

The vaccination rate for children aged five to 11 breached 80 per cent on Saturday when 208 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to children in the age group bringing the coverage rate to 80.4 per cent (34,501 children).

Some 1,155 second shots were also given to children in the age group, bringing the number to 20,341 (47.4 per cent).

The coverage rate of Brunei population with three doses of the vaccine stands at 70.4 per cent.

This was revealed by Minister of Defence II Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof as Acting Minister of Health during the daily press conference on Sunday.

The minister said the Sultanate recorded 217 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with 216 detected from antigen rapid test (ART) screenings and one from 322 RT-PCR laboratory tests performed in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 148,089.

The minister said 220 cases were declared recovered bringing the number of recoveries to 146,406. There are 1,460 active cases with four patients receiving treatment in hospitals and 1,456 undergoing home self-isolation.

The minister said one case in Category 4 requires respiratory assistance and under close monitoring and no cases in Category 5.

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health (MoH) Haji Maswadi bin Haji Mohsin and Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary (Policy and Management) at the MoH Dr Hajah Anie Haryani binti Haji Abdul Rahman were also present at the press conference.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin