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Covid-19: UAE crosses 6.5m vaccine doses; set to hit 50% target

Abu Dhabi - In the past couple of weeks, the vaccination drive has been progressing steadily while prioritising the vulnerable category of the general public.

The UAE has offered more than 6.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses till date as part of the national vaccination campaign, local authorities said on Saturday. And the country remains poised to reach its ambitious target of vaccinating 50 per cent of the population soon.

In the past couple of weeks, the vaccination drive has been progressing steadily while prioritising the vulnerable category of the general public. According to the stats from Our World in Data website, the UAE continues to be second best globally in terms of the cumulative doses administered per 100 people.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention announced the total number of doses provided up till Saturday stood at 6,516,723 with a distribution rate of 65.89 doses per 100 people.

On March 9, the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority said that 3,777,143 people at 48.71 per cent of the targeted population were vaccinated, i.e., had received a dose. This was announced when the total number of doses offered was 6,325,211.

The UAE had strived to vaccinate half the population by the end of the first quarter and the health authorities are all set to achieve the goal in the next few days.

Also, the number of new cases recorded has been on the decline for the past week: 3,072 on March 5 to 2,159 on Saturday. And doctors said such a large-scale vaccination campaign is resulting in community members developing immunity.

“The UAE is one of the few countries in the world which has vaccinated the largest number of its people. The nation has already administered more than 6.5 million doses of vaccine. The effective and massive vaccination drive led by the government is an example worth emulating for other countries,” said Dr Rohit Kumar, medical director, Medeor Hospital, Dubai.

“The massive efforts of the UAE government have lowered the number of daily positive cases reported in the country. Vaccination has been key to this achievement. Vaccines help to build immunity among the people against the virus and thus protects them from getting infected. With nearly half of the people being vaccinated in the country, the chances of people getting infected have reduced significantly.”

Dr Kumar added that even after taking the vaccination, the general public must continue to follow all the precautionary measures.

ashwani@khaleejtimes.com