European Union countries are adopting imaginative solutions to help deliver the Covid-19 vaccine as the continent plans to protect its nearly 450 million residents from the virus.
Italy's central piazzas will become inoculation centres with pop-up clinics becoming commonplace in town squares.
Scores of specially-fitted vans in Germany will deliver the vaccine to care homes, while the nation will rely on large 'vaccinodromes' to help immunise the general population.
The UK, which recently left the EU, has called upon major sporting venues such as racecourses to support vaccination efforts.
France has eased rules over how doses are delivered to its people in a country where anti-vaccine sentiments are prominent.
The EU has lagged behind countries such as the US and UK in its delivery programme. The drug regulator in Brussels took longer to approve a first vaccine for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine quickly. For instance, the Netherland only vaccinated its first person on Wednesday despite the drug arriving in the country on December 27.
The European Commission, which has signed deals with six vaccine manufacturers for two billion doses, has been blamed by some for the delay. Some claim it did not buy enough doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the first to be approved by Brussels’ regulators – although the EU’s executive branch denied this.
“I don't think that the issue is really the number of vaccines, it is the fact that we are at the beginning of a roll-out,” the commission’s spokesman Eric Mamer said. “We're all judging this as if this campaign is over; in fact, the campaign is just starting.”
While the UK approved the Pfizer/BioNTech inoculation on December 2 and the US on December 11, the EU did so on December 21.
The US authorised the Moderna vaccine on December 19 – the EU did so on January 6 – and the UK approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca product on December 30.
Plans for a co-ordinated EU-wide distribution fell apart, with individual countries left in charge of how they organise and administer the vaccine.
Those in nursing homes and medical centres were prioritised initially but as delivery of the vaccine becomes more widespread, member states have to come up with creative plans to inoculate their populations on a larger scale.
Germany
Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday that everyone in Germany will be vaccinated by the summer – if the EU approves further vaccines beyond the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
The Pfizer/BioNTech drug has already been given to more than 300,000 people, and 1.3 million doses have already been delivered throughout Germany. The country plans to open a series of ‘vaccinodromes,’ which will act as major vaccination centres to administer the drug quickly to as many people as possible.
Berlin’s Tegel airport, which closed to passenger traffic in November 2020 and was once one of Europe’s busiest transport links, will become one of the vaccination centres, as will the grounds for the city’s trade fairs.
Dozens of mini-vans will deliver the vaccines to care homes, the vehicles designed to store vials at the minus 70°C temperature the Pfizer/BioNTech drug requires. The operation has not been seamless, however, after around 1,000 doses were kept too warm in transit.
"When reading the temperature loggers that were enclosed in the cool boxes, doubts arose about the compliance with the cold chain requirements,” said the Bavarian district of Lichtenfels.
Italy
The initial European epicentre of the virus, Italy has been comparatively efficient in delivering the vaccine although there are disparities across the country.
Architect Stefano Boeri is responsible for designing about 1,500 temporary pavilions that will serve as vaccination centres in the country’s piazzas (town squares).
With a wooden interior and a primrose motif on the outside of the roof, he said idea was to "convey a symbol of serenity and regeneration".
"Italy's public life is in our piazzas. We need to make sure that these pavilions will be reachable, comfortable and places that the community consider, for a period of time, part of their lives in order to defeat Covid-19,” he said.
Italy will also invest in local biotech company ReiThera to support vaccine development.
UK
No longer a member of the EU, the UK became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine in early December and has already given it to 1.3 million critical workers, nurses and members of its elderly population.
Amid government plans to vaccinate 14 million people by February, supermarket chain Morrisons has been recruited.
From Monday, the car parks of three stores will be used for inoculations, with another 47 offered by the grocery chain as and when they are required.
Community venues such as village halls will also be converted into clinics, as will larger buildings such as sports stadiums and conference centres.
Seven mass vaccination centres will open next week, including Manchester's Etihad Tennis Centre and London's ExCeL, an exhibition space. Premier League football teams Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa have offered their grounds, as have the owners of Epsom and Leicester race courses.
Netherlands
Often depicted as organised and focused on detail, the Netherlands has been heavily criticised for its slow response. It started vaccinating on Wednesday, becoming the EU's last member state to do so.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the government focused on preparing for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is easier to store than its competitors but has yet to be cleared for use by the EU.
It took delivery of thousands of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech drug in late December, but is still finalising plans distribution plans.
Health Minister Hugo de Jong said the government had “proved insufficiently agile to accommodate quickly enough the changes that have occurred".
"Perhaps that could and should have been done differently,” he said.
The delay was also blamed on issues surrounding an IT system, which was to ensure people receive the correct dose.
Geert Wilders, the controversial leader of the country’s largest opposition party, described the Netherlands as “the village idiot of Europe”.
France
France has also been slow to respond compared to other EU states, with only several thousand vaccinated in a country where anti-vaxxers are widespread.
Polls have suggested more than 50 per cent would be unwilling to be vaccinated.
The government pledged to ramp up efforts and hundreds of vaccination centres will open next week. Rules demanding that only a medic or a nurse under direct supervision of a doctor inject the drug will be relaxed.
“I’m sorry to see we’re so late and we haven’t been able to vaccinate the people most at risk,” said Catherine Hill, an epidemiologist at the Gustave Roussy institute in Paris. “French bureaucracy is definitely at the root of this delay,” she told Reuters.
Spain
Another country that was among the hardest hit by Covid-19, health officials in Spain have admitted the vaccine strategy has been a slow process.
Many regions did not administer any doses until January 1 and there was a shortage of medical workers over the Christmas holidays.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
RESULT
Valencia 3
Kevin Gameiro 21', 51'
Ferran Torres 67'
Atlanta 4
Josip Llicic 3' (P), 43' (P), 71', 82'
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Rashid & Rajab
Director: Mohammed Saeed Harib
Stars: Shadi Alfons, Marwan Abdullah, Doaa Mostafa Ragab
Two stars out of five
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Company%20profile
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
