RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered the postponement of the start of the new school year by one week for the intermediate and secondary schools and two weeks for elementary schools and kindergartens. The schools were to reopen on Oct. 3. The royal court made the announcement early Thursday morning. There was no indication whether higher educational institutions too come under the directive.
The decision to postpone the start of the school year was taken after considering the latest reports from both the minister of education and the minister of health on the swine flu situation in the Kingdom, the statement said. “It is to ensure the safety of our sons and daughters,” it added. “Also, it would give more time to schools to get awareness and preventive materials on swine flu and train educational personnel on how to use these materials, while also schooling them on how to deal with suspected swine flu cases,” the statement added.
The king also ordered an extra six million doses of swine flu vaccine for the Kingdom. “This is after receiving positive reports on the vaccine,” the announcement said. With these extra doses, the quantity of the vaccine ordered by the Kingdom has risen to 10 million doses.
Dr. Khaled Al-Mirghalani, spokesman for the Health Ministry, denied that the vaccine will be available at the Kingdom’s hospitals in 15 days to coincide with the beginning of the new school year. He was quoted earlier by a local newspaper as saying that the vaccine would arrive in the Kingdom within 15 days.
“It is totally untrue. It was just a speculation on the part of its reporter,” he said. “When I was asked about the approximate date of the vaccines’ arrival, I never said it will arrive in 15 days from now or mentioned anything related to making it available on the commencement of new school year on Oct. 3,” he added.
Al-Mirghalani said that the Kingdom was one of the first countries to apply for the vaccine since the swine flu pandemic broke out, so it is at the top of list of the countries waiting to get the vaccine. “The Kingdom had made an initial order of around four million doses of the vaccine from five major drug manufacturers in Europe and North America, and now the order has risen to 10 million following the royal decree,” he said without naming these companies. “These doses will arrive any time in October,” he said.
“The people of the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, along with the government personnel on Haj duty will have priority in getting vaccinated, and the remaining will be used as needed specially for pilgrims,” he added.
In another development, a private medical complex in Al-Hamra district in Jeddah was closed down on charges of vaccinating patients with the normal flu vaccine while telling them that it gave them immunity against H1N1 virus which causes the swine flu.
A special committee from the Department of Health Affairs confiscated a large quantity of the alleged vaccines from the complex and also discovered that the doctor who was vaccinating the people was not a specialist and his working license had expired.
Director of Health Affairs in Jeddah Dr. Sami Badawood warned citizens and expatriates against medical institutions claiming to have vaccines against swine flu or labs to diagnose the disease.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health on Thursday announced the death of a 60-year-old Egyptian woman pilgrim from swine flu. It said the woman was suffering from the disease when she arrived at Yanbu seaport and was taken to intensive care unit for treatment.
— With input from Muhammad Humaidan
