UAE: 26,189 vaccine doses administered in 24 hours

The UAE has administered 26,189 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 23.3 million.

This takes the rate of doses to 235.99 doses per 100 people.

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday it would be dangerous to assume that the highly transmissable Omicron was the last variant to emerge and that the world was in the 'end game' of the pandemic.

However, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was possible this year to exit the acute phase of the pandemic where Covid-19 constitutes a global health emergency if strategies and tools such as testing and vaccines are used in a comprehensive way.

Speaking at the opening of Executive Board meeting, Tedros said since Omicron was first identified a little over nine weeks ago, more than 80 million cases had been reported to the UN agency, more than were reported in the whole of 2020.

"Conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge," he added.

Meanwhile, organisers of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have slightly relaxed their famously strict Covid-19 measures for participants in next month's Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.

The changes, which take immediate effect, include easing the threshold for being designated positive for Covid-19 from PCR tests, and reducing to seven days from 14 the period for which a person is deemed a close contact.

The changes "have been developed in order to further adapt to the reality of the current environment and support the Games participants," the IOC said in a statement.

The changes apply retrospectively, it added, and could allow the participation of some athletes.

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