Covid-19: UAE administers over 7 million vaccine doses

Reuters

Abu Dhabi - The nationwide vaccination drive is facilitated through more than 205 medical centres spread across the country.

Ashwani Kumar

Published: Fri 19 Mar 2021, 10:05 PM

The UAE has administered more than 7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses at a distribution rate of 72.03 doses per 100 people, the local authorities announced on Friday.

Dr Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President, lauded the achievement.

“The successful methodology of the UAE continues to protect our society from pandemic,” Dr Gargash tweeted.

The nationwide vaccination drive is facilitated through more than 205 medical centres spread across the country. The robust network of healthcare facilities ensured that more than 52 per cent of the total population got the vaccine.

However, in the past few weeks with the country prioritising the elderly and those with chronic diseases for provision of the first dose, the UAE briefly slipped a few places among the top countries with the highest daily vaccination rate per 100 people. But the pace of inoculation picked up tremendously this week and the UAE has again retained the second rank on the table.

According to Thursday’s stat from the Our World in Data website, the UAE (1.52) is just behind Chile (1.63) in daily doses administered per 100 people. Overall, the UAE (70.58) is second after Israel (111.27) in cumulative doses given per 100 people.

Promisingly, the number of daily doses offered in the country has almost soared five times within a week: 24,189 (Sunday), 37,969 (Monday), 89,746 (Tuesday), 161,742 (Wednesday), 150,097 (Thursday) and 143,680 (Friday).

“The total number of doses provided up to today stands at 7,124,146,” the Ministry of Health and Prevention said and added: “This is in line with the ministry’s plan to provide the Covid-19 vaccine to all members of society and efforts to reach acquired immunity resulting from the vaccination, which will help reduce the number of cases and control the Covid-19 virus.”

Meanwhile, medical experts termed the developments as a good sign of herd immunity being developed in the community.

Dr Abdul Aneez, assistant medical director, Medeor Hospital, Dubai, said: “There are many reasons for the UAE to celebrate and for other countries of the globe to emulate. Despite giving preference to the vulnerable category in the past few weeks, the country has raced to administer seven million doses in a record time. This milestone is achieved just days after the declaration of more than 50 per cent of the population being vaccinated. Furthermore, the number of fresh cases of infection is on the decline, which reflects the promise of herd immunity in the community.”

There were 2,160 new cases reported on Friday, which is consistent with the below 2,200 figures of the past days: 2,101 (Thursday), 2,051 (Wednesday), 2,018 (Tuesday), 1,898 (Monday) and 1,992 (Sunday).

Dr Aneez added: “This shows that the commitment and the responsibility that people of the UAE have expressed and their complete compliance to all precautionary measures. The hard work of the local authorities and the frontline workers in their fight against the pandemic has not gone waste. I hope the general public continues to support the government efforts in fighting this pandemic until the entire population is vaccinated.”

ashwani@khaleejtimes.com