Dubai begins Pfizer vaccine campaign to residents

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA), in coordination with Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management and the COVID-19 Command and Control Centre, has begun its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

While disclosing this on Wednesday December 23, 2020, the DHA stated that the campaign is to provide the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccination, which has recently been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration and registered by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention.

The first phase of the rollout will see four main groups targeted, with the first group including Emiratis and residents aged 60 and older, people with chronic health conditions, and the people of determination.

The second group is frontline health workers, the third is other essential workers, and the fourth is members of the general public who want to be vaccinated.

Among the first individuals to receive the vaccine was an 84-year-old senior citizen.

The DHA emphasized that providing a COVID-19 vaccine is part of the Dubai government’s keenness to protect the public from risks of infection, which will contribute to global efforts to overcome the pandemic.

The Authority also stressed that the vaccination drive is an important step in further strengthening Dubai’s integrated healthcare system and its comprehensive strategy to counter COVID-19.

The DHA has taken vital proactive steps such as increasing the COVID-19 PCR testing capacity to more than 80,000 tests per day.

In this context, another 1,246 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UAE, pushing the total number of COVID-19 infections to 197,124, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) announced Wednesday.

According to the ministry, the number of recoveries has gone up to 172,984 after 1,533 COVID-10 patients received the all-clear. The UAE’s COVID-19 death toll also rose to 645 as three more patients succumbed to the deadly virus.

News Agencies