UAE administers more than 2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine

The UAE has administered more than two million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine across the country, it announced on Tuesday.

A total of 2,065,367 shots have been given to citizens and residents in the country, with the vaccine distribution rate standing at 20.88 per 100 persons.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) aims to vaccinate most of the population and ‘reach the acquired immunity’ to help reduce the number of cases and control the spread of the virus.

The UAE is offering the Sinopharm vaccine for free across the country, while Dubai is also providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a phased manner.

Several centres have been opened in different emirates to administer the shots.

Read: Covid-19 vaccination centre opens in Dubai World Trade Centre; minimum age for jab reduced to 16

Abdul Rahman bin Mohammad bin Nasser Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention, urged all those who are eligible for the vaccine to visit the centres based in the various emirates of the country to support the campaign objectives of vaccinating more than 50 per cent of the country’s population during the first quarter of this year.

“Reaching this record number of Covid-19 vaccine doses within a short period mirrors the exceptional efforts of our wise leadership in dealing with the coronavirus crisis, as well as the concerted efforts of the government, all of the country’s institutions, and our first-line of defence heroes to provide the vaccine to all citizens and residents in various regions of the country.”

The UAE announced 3,491 new cases on January 19, taking the total case count to 260,233. The country’s health ministry also confirmed 3,311 recoveries and five deaths.

The death toll now stands at 756.

Read: Dubai’s DHA ceases PCR testing at select centres; nationwide Covid-19 cases cross 260,000