Covid-19 vaccine: Elderly and people with chronic diseases to be prioritised at all centres across the UAE

The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said on Saturday that all Covid-19 vaccination centres in the country will temporarily prioritise vaccinating the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

During this period, all other categories of individuals may get vaccinated following prior appointments with the inoculation centres.

The decision was made in light of the spike in infections over the past weeks, reported state news agency WAM.

By doing so, the ministry hopes to ensure herd immunity is built up and the spread of the disease is contained.

It added that over the next 4-6 weeks, the vaccine rollout will be increasingly focused on inoculating as many as possible from both the elderly and people with chronic diseases who are the most vulnerable to the virus.

The UAE has approved the use of several vaccines in the country, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinopharm, Sputnik V and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

On Saturday, officials in the UAE confirmed that 193,187 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered over the previous 24 hours.

The total number of doses provided up to today stands at 4,201,347 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 42.48 doses per 100 people.

It came on the same day that health ministry confirmed 3,276 new Covid-19 infections, scaling the total number of cases detected thus far in the country to 323,402.