Related: How the UAE, Bahrain and Israel topped the global vaccine push
Vaccine take-up in the UAE is higher than initially forecast, adding to hopes that the country could hit a level of herd immunity soon.
Dr Farida Al Hosani, a federal health spokeswoman, gave her assessment at an online debate on Tuesday night.
“We are seeing good progress on a daily basis," she told the event, organised by the Atlantic Council think tank.
"We conducted a couple of surveys to see the acceptance of the community and based on this, we rolled out the campaign.
"We could see the level of acceptance from the beginning was good – higher than expected."
As of February 1, just under 35 doses had been administered for every 100 people – second only to Israel with 57.6 and followed by the UK at 14.4 and Bahrain at 9.6 doses per 100 people.
It is estimated that nearly one fifth of the country's population has received some protection against the virus.
The vaccine is entirely voluntary, but long queues were seen at walk-in vaccine centres, while there are waiting lists of several weeks for advance appointments.
The evident demand has encouraged officials to estimate that 50 per cent of the population could be vaccinated by late March.
There were local and global vaccine shortages, particularly of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots. But on Tuesday, 200,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Dubai from a vaccine lab in India, with more expected.
Dr Al Hosani said the government hopes to develop the country's drug-making abilities to manufacture its own vaccine doses in the near future.
As The National revealed last month, UAE authorities and Abu Dhabi medical company G42 secured a deal to make the Sinopharm vaccine under licence from China, although it will be some time before production is under way.
"We are not a vaccine manufacturer and we are building up capacity for future manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccine as well," Dr Al Hosani said.
“We are engaged in discussions with other countries on how to support with logistics parts of the vaccine as the UAE has strong infrastructure, strong international connectivity and storage facilities.
"We are already a regional centre for many pharmaceutical vaccines for commercial use."
Dr Al Hosani spoke to delegates and viewers alongside Dr Manaf Al Qahtani, from the Bahrain National Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus, and Dr Shoshy Goldberg, chief nursing officer from Israel's Ministry of Health.
She said the three countries had fared better than many major economies in tackling cases and introducing the vaccine.
Oxford-AstraZeneca shots arrive from India – in pictures
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women & the Food That Tells Their Stories
Laura Shapiro
Fourth Estate
RACE CARD
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7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (Turf) 2,410m
8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,900m
8.50pm UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm Dubai Trophy (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (T) 1,200m
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Favourite book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Holiday choice: Anything Disney-related
Proudest achievement: Receiving a presidential award for foreign services.
Family: Wife and three children.
Like motto: You always get what you ask for, the universe listens.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
TO ALL THE BOYS: ALWAYS AND FOREVER
Directed by: Michael Fimognari
Starring: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo
Two stars
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
COMPANY PROFILE
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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