[NEWS] UAE PM Sheikh Mohammed receives dose of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine

[Nikhel Nice]

UAE PM Sheikh Mohammed receives dose of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine

 

UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm on Tuesday.

 

 

The Prime Minister and Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.

Sheikh Mohammed took to Twitter to share the news along with a photo of him getting a shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.

"While receiving the Covid-19 vaccine today. We wish everyone safety and great health, and we are proud of our teams who have worked relentlessly to make the vaccine available in the UAE. The future will always be better in the UAE," he wrote in his post.

 

According to an Al Jazeera report, Sheikh Mohammed received a shot of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese state pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm.

He is the latest in the line of top Emirati officials to be vaccinated against coronavirus in recent days.

The foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and deputy prime minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan have also taken the experimental vaccine.

In September, Bahrain announced that Crown Prince Salman had taken part in third phase trials of the Sinopharm vaccine.

SINOPHARM CANDIDATE ENTERS PHASE III TRIALS IN UAE

Last month, UAE had authorised the emergency use of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine as part of the country's measures to protect health workers in close contact with Covid-19 patients and ensure their safety.

The vaccine candidate, nearing the end of phase III trials in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan, is a partnership between Sinopharm's China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42).

The phase III trials of the inactivated virus vaccine began in mid-July in the UAE and were expanded to Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.

G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy last month said the vaccine had been administered to more than 31,000 people across those countries.

On Tuesday, Bahrain granted emergency approval for the use of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine candidate on frontline workers.

UAE APPROVES TRIALS OF RUSSIAN VACCINE

Last month, authorities announced the UAE had also approved clinical trials of Russia's Sputnik V, becoming the first Middle East country to do so.

Human trials of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine, named Sputnik V, will be held in the United Arab Emirates, the second country after Belarus to take part in the programme of which results are expected before the end of November

“The results of the UAE trial will be combined with the results of the of the trial in Russia and other countries,” Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in the statement, adding that interim results will be published before the end of November.

The UAE’s health minister said that the Gulf state’s high degree of demographic diversity made it an advantageous location to hold a vaccine trial.

The UAE has so far reported 1,36,149 confirmed cases of coronavirus as well as 503 deaths according to the latest data.