UAE Covid vaccine: 76% residents believe life will be back to normal in a year

Abu Dhabi - About 62 per cent expressed confidence with the clinical trials.

Seventy-six per cent of UAE residents are confident that, with the ongoing vaccination across the country, life will be back to normal in a year, a first-of-its-kind survey has revealed.

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More than five million vaccine doses have already been administered across the Emirates as on Monday, with a distribution rate of 51.43 doses per 100 people. The country targets to get half the population vaccinated in the first quarter of 2021.

G42 Healthcare’s 15-day online survey — conducted last month by YouGov — reflects the community’s confidence in the UAE’s mass vaccination drive. In the survey with 1,011 respondents, more than three-quarters felt the vaccine will bring life back to pre-Covid times in a year.

Further breakdown of this percentage offers a promising picture: seven per cent of those polled actually thought the vaccine will restore normalcy within a month, while 16 per cent felt it will take between one and three months. A little over a quarter believed it will happen in three to six months (26 per cent) and six to 12 months (27 per cent).

Seventeen 17 per cent say full recovery may take between one and two years and five per cent see normalcy only after 2 years. Only seven per cent of respondents see the current situation to continue ‘forever’ as the new normal.

The survey size covered people from across the UAE: 32 per cent in Abu Dhabi; 30 per cent Dubai; 15 per cent Sharjah; and 23 per cent from other emirates.

About 11 per cent respondents were Emiratis and rest (89 per cent) are expats: 49 per cent Asians, 22 per cent Arabs, seven per cent westerners and 11 per cent other nationalities.

Different income groups were also represented, with 49 per cent earning below Dh10,000 (28 per cent below Dh5,000 and 21 per cent between Dh5,001 and Dh10,000). Seventeen per cent earned between Dh10,001 and Dh20,000, while 14 per cent were in the Dh20,001-Dh40,000 salary range; nine per cent above Dh40,000; and the rest (10 per cent) didn’t specify.

About 69 per cent were men, and as many as 53 per cent of all respondents were married and had children, 35 per cent were single, eight per cent were married but had no kids; and three per cent didn’t specify.