UAE: 13,432 Covid vaccine doses administered in 24 hours

The UAE has administered 13,432 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 23 million.

This takes the rate of doses to 232.66 doses per 100 people.

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Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme Covax, mainly due to their rapid expiry date, a Unicef official said on Thursday.

The big figure shows the difficulties of vaccinating the world despite growing supplies of shots, with Covax getting closer to delivering 1 billion doses to a total of nearly 150 countries.

"More than a 100 million have been rejected just in December alone," Etleva Kadilli, director of Supply Division at UN agency Unicef told lawmakers at the European Parliament.

Meanwhile, Israel has administered a fourth vaccine dose to more than 500,000 people, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Israel began administering second boosters to the most vulnerable late last month and later began offering them to everyone over 60.

Authorities hope the additional boosters will blunt a wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant. Health Ministry figures show Israel currently has some 260,000 active cases. But only 289 patients are listed as seriously ill, far fewer than during previous waves.

• Dubai