UAE on track to vaccinate half of its population by end of March

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates is on track to vaccinate half of its population against the coronavirus before a deadline it has set at the end of March, according to the country’s health authorities.

The tiny desert sheikhdom of 10 million began rolling out its vaccination campaign to the public late last year, after making China’s Sinopharm vaccine available to frontline health workers and clinicians. government officials from September. And in terms of vaccination rates, the UAE’s national program is now the second highest in the world after Israel.

More than 1.8 million people have already received the Sinopharm vaccine, which is available free of charge to all citizens and residents. This is more than four times the per capita vaccination rate in the United States and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine developed in the United States and Germany is being rolled out in Dubai, currently in its first phase reserved for people over 60. years, existing health conditions and frontline workers.

Both vaccines require two jabs spaced 28 days apart, and 28 days after receiving the second vaccine, patients are no longer required to quarantine, but will still need to wear masks and practice social distancing, the National Managing Authority of crises and disasters the country told me

And while taking the vaccine is optional, according to the NCEMA, it is strongly encouraged. Abu Dhabi government employees who choose not to take any of the vaccines will need to have a PCR test every two weeks.

“We are very satisfied with the progress we have made,” Omar Ghobash, UAE Deputy Minister of Culture and Public Diplomacy, told Hadley Gamble on Sunday. “Obviously, there are people who still get sick, and unfortunately die, but overall we think we have managed to strike a balance between health and safety on the one hand and the economic viability of somewhere else.”

Sinopharm developers claim its vaccine is 86% effective while Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is 95% effective, although some medical professionals have expressed skepticism about the Chinese-made vaccine due to lack of data published regarding its development and testing. In November, UAE leaders, including the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, tweeted images of themselves being shot at Sinopharm.

Cases have exploded in the Gulf country in less than three weeks since late December, as tourists flocked to Dubai’s beaches, restaurants and fully open malls. Although visitors demand a negative PCR test result before boarding or upon arrival, many suspect that a more transmissible strain of the virus first identified in the UK is at least partly to blame, given the high volume of British tourists to the emirate for the holidays. season.

The surge in the number of cases – now averaging over 3,000 per day compared to around 1,000 per day at the end of December – has led the UK to remove the UAE from its ‘safe travel corridor’, even as UK travelers are excluded from many countries for fear of the new virus strain. The United Arab Emirates had managed to keep its number of cases below 2,000 per day throughout 2020.

The UAE has recorded 256,732 confirmed coronavirus cases and 751 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Sunday saw a record number of daily cases of 3,453.

Still, it looks like for at least now the party city and regional business capital of Dubai will continue their vaccination campaign while keeping its tourism dependent economy open.

The neighboring oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi has been much more conservative, demanding a series of negative multi-day PCR test results for anyone wishing to enter the emirate – even from other emirates in the country.

As for Dubai, wearing a mask remains mandatory in all public places, excluding activities such as eating or exercising strenuously, and authorities are reminding residents to stay away socially. The emirate’s openness, which gradually increased from the summer, had followed a period of one of the world’s toughest lockdowns in March and April.

In the New Year, the Dubai government was allowing residents to hold gatherings inside their homes for up to 30 people. Hotels that were once almost entirely empty see occupancy rates increase by 70% as tourists flee their own countries for a sense of normalcy and warm weather.

“They are balancing personal responsibility with an economy that needs to move forward,” Ghobash said of the country.

“Vaccinating as much of society as possible” is the country’s goal, tweeted NCEMA earlier this month, in order to “access acquired immunity resulting from vaccination, which will help reduce the number of cases and to control the disease “.