DUBAI (Reuters) -Dubai will begin getting people into the free COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech from Wednesday, the government said, joining Saudi Arabia which came last week as the first Arab country to start using this vaccine.
The move comes after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain earlier this month released a vaccine by China’s National Medicines Agency (Sinopharm) to the public.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention registered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use at the request of Pfizer, the state news agency WAM reported, citing the ministry.
The UAE was the first country outside China to release the Chinese vaccine to the public, saying earlier this month that it had 86% efficacy, citing an international analysis. time trial of clinical trials at a late stage.
China has introduced two candidate vaccines from Sinopharm and one from Sinovac Biotech Ltd in an emergency use program launched in July, targeting specific high-risk risk groups such as medical workers and medical professionals. boundary inspection.
The Dubai Emergency and Disaster Management Grand Committee said on Twitter late Tuesday that a “comprehensive vaccination campaign” against COVID-19 would begin on Wednesday using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
A message from the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) lifeline said the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccine would be for Dubai citizens and residents 60 years or older, and for individuals with a chronic illness over 18 years.
The second division would be made up of frontline workers in the public and private sectors, the third would be key sector workers, and finally, the general public, WAM said DHA said.
Dubai, the UAE’s financial center, has been hit hard by the coronavirus revolution, which damaged its major tourism, real estate and trade sectors.
S&P Global warned earlier this year that Dubai ‘s economy was set to shrink by 11% in 2020, almost quadrupling the fall in GDP during the global financial crisis of 2009.
Qatar has also issued an emergency use permit for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, while Oman will receive the first shipments of the same vaccine on Wednesday.
Qatar launched the free vaccination campaign on Wednesday, Qatari media reported.
Kuwait received 150,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday and is expected to receive about 450,000 doses of it in the first quarter, Gada Ibrahim, head of public relations at the ministry’s health, said in a video on Twitter.
The UAE has recorded 195,878 cases of coronavirus and 642 deaths to date from the virus.
Reciting with Saeed Azhar; Additional recitation by Raya Jalabi, Hadeel Al Sayegh and Ahmed Hagagy; Edited by Lincoln Feast and Bernadette Baum