UAE Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to be given after health evaluation

Abu Dhabi - Taking a booster dose offers immunity against the many strains of the coronavirus, especially during its spread and mutations.

The elderly and people with chronic illness will be offered the Covid-19 vaccine booster dose after a careful assessment by the health authorities.

Dr Farida Al Hosani, Official Spokesperson of the UAE Health Sector, noted receiving many queries with regards to receiving the booster dose since it was announced last week.

Dr Farida noted that as a start, the booster dose is offered to the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases.

“The UAE has approved the booster dose of the vaccine for the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases, at the first stage. Since they are the most prone to the infection and its complications. This goes in line with the announcement made by different countries of the world on the importance of the Covid-19 vaccine booster dose.”

Dr Farida underlined that taking a booster dose offers immunity against the many strains of the coronavirus, especially during its spread and mutations.

“The booster dose is an additional dose given after receiving the first two doses. This is taken in order to boost the immunity against this virus, specifically for the elderly and those with chronic diseases.”

Earlier last week Dr Farida had noted that a booster dose can be taken after a person has completed more than six months since the second dose of the vaccine.

“The health authorities will hold an assessment to ascertain that people are eligible to get the booster dose. This will be done through booking appointments.”

Dr Farida stressed that community members, who feel any symptoms, must go and do a PCR test as different variants of the virus have been reported in different parts of the world.

“We have detected new strains and mutations in different countries of the world. Therefore, we recommend that you go for the medical test and repeat the test if symptoms persist even with negative results.”

Dr Farida stressed that apart from PCR testing, Covid-19 vaccine is the “most important tool” to combat the pandemic situation.

She pointed out that the vaccines available in the UAE have high efficacy in curing the spread of Covid-19. “More number of vaccinated people, will ensure herd immunity in the community.”

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Health and Prevention announced administering 128,858 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the last 24 hours, to reach an overall total of 12,294,706 at a distribution rate of 124.31 doses per 100 people.

Also, the total number of RT-PCR tests conducted across the country exceeded 49 million.

“The UAE, day after day, is proving to be one of the most important globally successful models in containing the spread of the pandemic.”

ashwani@khaleejtimes.com