With plans in motion to have half of the UAE population vaccinated by March, Dubai is pulling out all the stops to ensure this happens.
Two vaccines are currently being administered in the emirate – the Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine.
Ensuring the COVID-19 vaccines are administered as quickly and efficiently as possible, a new vaccination centre has been set up in Dubai and it was in record-timing.
Sharing a time-lapse to the Dubai Media Office Instagram page, it was revealed this new centre had been set up within 72 hours by the DHA.
Located at One Central, the centre has a capacity of 4,000 visitors per day.
In a press conference which took place earlier in January, Dr. Farida Al Hosani, the official spokesperson for the UAE health sector outlined the plans for the COVID-19 vaccines across the nation.
“We aim to reach more than 50 per cent of the country’s population during the first quarter of this year,” she said. “This will help us reduce cases in general, reduce critical cases in particular, and control the disease better in the next phase.”
Sinophram vaccine
The first of the two vaccines available in the UAE to be administered was the Sinopharm vaccine.
The vaccine underwent clinical trials in Abu Dhabi during summer last year and it was confirmed by health authorities saying that the “analysis [from the trial of 31,000 people] shows no serious safety concerns”.
High-up government officials including His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, Her Excellency Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaab, the Minister of Culture and Youth and more have received the Sinopharm vaccine.
Pfizer vaccine
Then, at the end of December, the COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved to be administered in Dubai.
After undergoing numerous clinical trials, the vaccine has been found to have 95 per cent efficacy. Recently, the DHA outlined exactly who is currently eligible to receive the vaccine.
The vaccine has already started to be rolled out, with some government ministers already receiving their first doses. As of today, this now includes Director-General of the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO) Her Excellency Mona Al Marri.
