UAE and Israeli health sector officials participated in the Hope Consortium conference that took place virtually from March 29-30 in Abu Dhabi. On Tuesday, Dr. Farida Al Hosani represented the UAE along with Professor Nachman Ash from Israel at a joint panel with the United Kingdom vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi. During the joint panel, Dr. Al Hosani and Professor Ash explained how both the UAE and Israel built their immunization programs in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They underlined the efforts made by the two countries to launch the world’s fastest mass vaccination programs.

Significantly, Israel and the UAE are leading the world's vaccination drive at first and second position respectively. The UAE has administered the COVID-19 vaccines to more than 50 percent of its population, two weeks before its end-of-March target. At the top spot, Israel has vaccinated over five million of the six million eligible people in the country in just three months.

The United Kingdom is also conducting a successful mass vaccination drive in the country. On Monday, the British authorities started lifting lockdown restrictions in order to ensure the resumption of economic activities.

Addressing the panel, Prof Ash asserted that robust leadership and logistics helped Israel in overcoming a brutal third wave of COVID-19 that hit the country in January.

“It was really a huge project during these last three months,” he said, talking about the mass vaccination campaign in the country.

Prof Ash explained that dedicated teams divided the COVID-19 vaccines, which arrived in Israel in large packets, into smaller parcels for daily deliveries across various parts of the country.

“We have a central command. And we have a central storage point, a deep freeze point and from there the vaccinations are sent every day to the hospitals. We wanted to go to every village, to every city, so we had to spread out our vaccinations," he added.

Logistics played a crucial role in the UAE's vaccination drive as well as it facilitated a smooth and timely delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the country's extensive network of hospitals, clinics, and temporary vaccination centers. Dr. Al Hosani noted that the authorities ensured good access to vaccines for everyone, including different sectors of frontline workers.

"We had to send field teams to provide the vaccine," the official spokeswoman for the UAE health sector added.

She explained that the UAE launched vaccination drive-through centers and converted majlises into vaccination clinics to ensure maximum reach in the country. She highlighted that the UAE authorities prepared for its mass vaccination campaign months before it officially started in the country. Furthermore, the government collaborated with the private sector to roll out the program and administer the vaccines in huge numbers every day. Authorities launched several programs to raise awareness among the public about the need for vaccination, Dr. Al Hosani added.

“We were engaged with the community ahead of the campaign. They were part of the clinical trial in the UAE, so they were aware of the study and prepared for the vaccine coming,” she noted.

In the UK, the NHS collaborated with the army to launch the mass vaccination campaign in December 2020. At that time, the country was entering a strict lockdown in order to curb the spread of the Kent variant of COVID-19.

“Pretty much everything was shut down. We also knew we were getting very close to the approval of the vaccines," Mr. Zahawi noted.

He explained that the UK authorities deployed the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine for its inoculation campaign, just like Israel and the UAE. At the same time, relevant infrastructure was set up that helped the UK in inoculating the maximum number of people on a daily basis.

"We built an infrastructure, deliberately much bigger in terms of its ability to vaccinate than the supply we were due to take in. It enabled the country to ramp up the administration of vaccinations easily as supply increased," the UK vaccines minister added. So far, more than 30.44 million people (about half of the UK's population) in the country have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3.67 million people have received their second dose.