Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman receives COVID-19 vaccine

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, state media reported.

The country's Health Minister Dr Tawfiq al-Rabiah extended his gratitude to the Crown Prince for his "keenness and continuous follow-up" to provide vaccines to citizens.

#SaudiArabia's Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman receives #coronavirus vaccine pic.twitter.com/WPURCedOBs

— Saudi Expats (@ksaexpats) December 26, 2020

"Within the framework of Vision 2030, there is a policy of prevention is better than cure, which was represented by intensifying preventive measures, emphasising that human health is first, and providing safe and internationally approved vaccine in record time and providing it to citizens and residents. The Kingdom is one of the best countries in the world in facing the coronavirus pandemic," Al Arabiya news channel quoted al-Rabiah as saying.

This comes after Saudi Arabia received shipments of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pzifer and BioNTech earlier this month, The Hill reported.

According to the Health Ministry of the kingdom, there are 3,61,903 COVID-19 cases in the country while 352,815 cases have recovered from the illness. So far, 6,168 have died due to COVID-19 related complications.

Prince Mohammed is among the few world leaders who have received the vaccine. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was vaccinated on live television. Earlier this week, US President-elect Joe Biden had received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

"Today, I received the COVID-19 vaccine. To the scientists and researchers who worked tirelessly to make this possible -- thank you. We owe you an awful lot," Biden had said in a tweet.