More than half of UAE population vaccinated against COVID-19

DUBAI: More than half of the UAE population have received their COVID-19 vaccines, achieving the country’s goal of vaccinating 52.46 percent of individuals covered under the inoculation campaign.

“The campaign that was launched at the start of the year around the country, upon the directives of the country’s leadership, has vaccinated nearly 70.21 percent of elderly people and those with chronic diseases, who are being prioritized,” health minister Abdulrahman bin Mohamed Al-Owais said, in a report from state news agency WAM.

The UAE has provided nearly seven million doses to more than 205 medical centers using the three approved vaccines developed by Sinopharm (SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Inactivated Vaccine), Pfizer/BioNTech (mRNA) and the Russian-developed Sputnik V.

Health officials meanwhile reported that 89,746 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were given in the past 24 hours, giving the UAE with a rate of vaccine distribution of 67.43 doses per 100 people.

There were 2,018 confirmed coronavirus cases overnight, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the UAE to 430,313 – with 1,406 deaths – of which 410,736 have fully recovered from the contagious disease.