The total doses administered now stand at 24.3 million
Reuters
The UAE has administered 10,598 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the past 24 hours.
The country's Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total doses administered now stand at 24.3 million.
This takes the rate of doses to 246.64 doses per 100 people.
Moderna announced Thursday it had asked the United States drug regulator for emergency authorisation for a second booster shot of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine for all adults.
The request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would “allow for a fourth dose of our Covid vaccine in adults 18 years of age and older who have received an initial booster” of any approved Covid jab, Moderna said on Twitter.
The request comes days after Pfizer-BioNTech, makers of the other Covid mRNA vaccine, also requested emergency approval for a second booster shot, but their request was limited to adults aged 65 and older.
Meanwhile, the Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai is pushing ahead with a mass testing initiative as it tries to curb a new spike in Covid-19 infections, but some districts were easing lockdown rules in an effort to minimise disruptions.
The city, home to about 25 million people, saw symptomatic local community infections hit 57 on March 17, with another 203 domestically transmitted asymptomatic cases, up from eight and 150 respectively a day earlier.
Shanghai, which has up to now remained relatively unscathed by the coronavirus, has shut schools and launched a city-wide testing programme that has seen dozens of residential compounds sealed off for at least 48 hours.