DUBAI : The United Arab Emirates will only offer vaccines to residents and citizens who are older or have certain health conditions, state media reported Sunday.
The temporary policy change was made after a spike in diseases over the past few weeks “to ensure community protection has been acquired and the disease will be there”, said state news agency WAM, building a ministry in health.
For the next four to six weeks authorities will try to vaccinate as many elderly people and people with certain diseases. Some other jobs will also be available for other population segments, he said.
The move came as daily infections tripled in about six weeks to reach a peak of 3,977 on February 3 in the UAE. The Gulf state has not provided a breakdown for each emirate.
Vaccines developed by the Chinese National Pharmaceutical Agency (Sinopharm) were administered to all adults in the Gulf state.
Dubai has also given the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to citizens and residents of the emirate, with priority given to the elder, those with chronic diseases and front-line workers.
The healthy ministry reported 3,093 new cases Sunday.