Manama: The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention will launch drive-through COVID-19 vaccination services soon.
The imitative, which is in collaboration with the Department of Health-Abu Dhabi is part of a joint effort to vaccinate more than 50 per cent of the UAE’s population by the end of March.
The health department will provide vaccination centres outside the emirate of Abu Dhabi, where people can take the jab at the current drive-thru covid testing centres. These centres will be managed by the Abu Dhabi Healthcare Services (SEHA), it said in a press release.
The vaccine will be available to citizen and expat over 16 years of age on completely free of charge. The vaccination is being rolled out 218 health care facilities across the country.
Health authorities in the UAE on Monday released a full list of all the clinics and hospitals where UAE residents can now go and get a COVID-19 vaccination in the emirates.
In order to vaccinate the eligible people, the country launched a national vaccination campaign that aims to boost the immunity and maintain health and safety of all community members.
The inoculation being doled out in the UAE is the Sinopharm vaccine, with two jab administered 21 days gap. According to the UAE regulators, the China-developed Sinopharm has 86 per cent efficacy and was approved for use after Phase 3 trials found it was effective against coronavirus. The UAE-wide trials in summer involved 31,000 subjects consist of 200 countries.
In addition to the Sinopharm, Dubai residents and citizens were introduced American de Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the second choice, though this is being rolled out in phases to people falling into specified categories based on age, nationality, profession and medical vulnerabilities.
According to state-run WAM news agency, the total doses administered in the Emirates now stands at 21.6 lakhs as on Wednesday, January 20, with the vaccine distribution rate to 20.88 per 100 persons.
The UAE ranks first in the world in the distribution of daily doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The UAE has vaccinated 95,783 residents in the last 24 hours. In the past seven days, the UAE’s daily dose rate is 1.16 per 100 people. Overall, the UAE’s dose administration rate is 20.8 per 100 people — second globally after Israel.
The country also ranks fifth in the world when it comes to the availability of the vaccine, after the US, China, UK and Israel.
On Sunday, the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention has approved the COVID-19 vaccine for use in people aged 16 and above. Before this decision, adults over 18 were permitted to receive the vaccination.
