Asma Bait Ishaq

Director of Planning and Health Regulation

Asma Bait Ishaq works in health planning and regulation at Oman's Ministry of Health, in the Directorate General of Health Services for Muscat Governorate, which plans services and licenses and regulates public and private health facilities in the governorate. She previously worked in the ministry's Directorate of Pharmacy and Medical Supplies in Muscat, the affiliation under which she co-authored a 2025 review in the journal Vaccines examining Oman's accelerated COVID-19 immunisation campaign through the World Health Organization's health system building blocks framework, covering governance, financing, workforce, supply chain, information systems and service delivery. The campaign began in December 2020 and delivered more than seven million doses through over 44 vaccination centres, reaching roughly 71 per cent of the population by mid-2022 despite global supply shortages and vaccine hesitancy. The review credits inter-ministerial coordination under a single ministry-led strategy, community engagement and transparent risk communication, and records COVID-19 mortality below one per cent among vaccinated people.