ABU DHABI — The process of securing sufficient quantities of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines is the key challenge facing most countries in the race to achieve sufficient community immunization, to counter the pandemic and hinder its spread.
Other related problems have also emerged, such as the inability to produce sufficient vaccines and obtain them for every country, in addition to issues related to delivering the vaccines, creating a state of uncertainty in terms of achieving sufficient immunization on a global scale.
However, the UAE has been steadily progressing in the process of securing sufficient vaccines for all its residents, due to the country’s relevant efforts and global partnerships, which increased the likelihood of quickly achieving herd immunity that requires the vaccination of at least 70 percent of the community.
Since the outbreak of the virus, the UAE has been operating according to a proactive approach aimed at achieving a sustainable recovery, which is reflected by the fact that the phase III clinical trials of two globally approved vaccines were conducted in the country, making it a leader in terms of providing vaccines to citizens and residents with efficiency and professionalism.
The UAE has currently approved four COVID-19 vaccines, which are the Sinopharm vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Sputnik vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which are offered to all citizens and residents free of charge, provided that they are not suffering from any health conditions or medical issues preventing them from taking the vaccine.
The UAE is witnessing growing demand for the vaccine among all segments of the community, with the total number of doses provided to the public amounting to 4,313,868 until Feb. 7, 2021, a rate of 43.62 doses for every 100 persons.
The country leads the world in terms of number of indexes related to vaccine distribution. On Thursday, the "Our World in Data" website displayed global statistics related to coronavirus, which showed that the UAE is ranked first in terms of the highest number of daily and weekly doses for every 100 persons.
According to the latest update on the website, the number of distributed vaccine doses around the world amounted to nearly 128 million until Feb. 6, accounting for only 1.64 percent of the world’s population, as per the estimate of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) of 7.8 billion people in July 2020.
However, the number of vaccine doses distributed in the UAE until yesterday amounted to 4,313,868 doses, accounting for some 45.4 percent of the population. — WAM
