Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg
Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg
The United Arab Emirates has approved the coronavirus shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and Dubai have revealed plans to start a free vaccination campaign starting Wednesday.
The emergency registration in the UAE was in response to a request from Pfizer, state-owned WAM reported, and comes two weeks after the country approved a vaccine developed by Sinopharm Unit China National Biotec Group.
The Sinopharm image has already been made available to residents free of charge after trials in the UAE, of which Dubai is a part, showed that it protected 86% of people from Covid-19. Pfizer and BioNTech have said their vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the disease.
“An extensive vaccination campaign against Covid-19 will start in Dubai on Wednesday,” said the city’s media office said. “Vaccination uses the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and is free.”
According to the Dubai Health Authority hotline, the first phase of vaccinations will target seniors and residents aged 60 and over. Vaccinations will also be provided to people with chronic illnesses aged 18 years or older and to frontline workers.
Pfizer’s injection is based on messenger RNA – a new technology that essentially transforms the body’s cells into tiny vaccine-making machines that instruct cells to make copies of the coronavirus spike protein, which stimulates the production of protective antibodies .
Although mRNA vaccines have shown higher efficacy, they pose distribution challenges for some countries as they require freezer facilities and trucks. The Sinopharm vaccine can be transported and stored at normal refrigerated temperatures.
Dubai, the Middle East’s business hub, shut down the city for about a month earlier this year to halt the spread of the virus. Its flagship, Emirates airline, ground passenger flights and the Expo 2020 exhibition scheduled to start in October were delayed for a year. Flights have since resumed.
Since the outbreak began, more than 195,000 people in the UAE have tested positive for the virus. The Gulf Nation has reported more than a thousand cases a day for the past two months, after falling to 164 cases in August.
The country has a death rate of 0.3%, one of the lowest worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
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