UAE: 24,480 Covid vaccine doses administered in 24 hours

The UAE has administered 24,480 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 233.47 doses per 100 people.

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The Covax global vaccine-sharing programme has delivered 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses, one of the organisations which manages it said on Saturday.

Supplies to poorer nations have long been very limited because of lack of vaccines, as wealthier states secured most of the doses initially available from December 2020.

But in the last quarter shipments have exponentially increased, allowing Covax to reach the milestone of 1 billion doses shipped to 144 countries, said Gavi, which co-leads the programme alongside the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in cities across France on Saturday against tighter restrictions on people not vaccinated against Covid-19, as parliamentary wrangling continued over the draft law.

In the capital Paris, the largest single gathering set off from near the Eiffel Tower, called by fringe anti-EU presidential candidate Florian Philippot.

Other demonstrations harked back to the 2018-19 “yellow jackets” protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s perceived favouring of the wealthy, while there were further gatherings in major cities like Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lille.

• Dubai