UAE’s top priority is development and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccine to protect the population against the infection. On Monday, Dr Omar Al Hammadi, official spokesman for UAE’s regular Covid-19 media briefing, said that a campaign aiming to vaccinate frontline workers, people with chronic diseases and the elderly is under way. These population groups were prioritised “because they are more vulnerable to infection than others”. He said that pregnant women and children won’t be given the vaccine until its safety is assured. Once vaccine’s safety is established, the vaccination programme will be expanded to include these groups as well.

“Wearing a mask and maintaining physical distancing is paramount to protect ourselves from the virus but the vaccine will be our weapon to fight it head on,” he said.

Precautionary measures will continue along with vaccination drive to ensure it is successful. Mass vaccination is beneficial in long run, as more people are vaccinated against Covid-19, lesser will be the spread. Dr Al Hammadi said that decreasing the spread of infection over the following months and years is the aim, and then finally its stamping out.

A large proportion of the population will have to be immunised against the coronavirus to achieve herd immunity. “This means that whenever the disease appears, it will find an immune system ready to face it and so it will recede.”

With UAE approaching its 49th National Day, Dr Al Hammadi asked the public to keep celebrations limited to home. He said that while the celebratory day is being held on such unprecedented circumstances, each individual is responsible to protect himself and others.  

“We call upon all citizens and residents to adhere to all precautionary measures as we do not want our National Day to be marred by violations and laxity in prevention, the results of which lead to dire consequences.”

On Monday, the UAE recorded 1,107 new Covid-19 cases, thereby raising the country’s total Covid-19 infections to 168,860. Another 714 patients were recovered, taking the recovery tally to 154,899. Authorities reported death of two patients, taking the death toll to 572. There are a total of 13,389 active cases of Covid-19 across the country – which means since November 4, a rise of about 12,000, when less than 2,000 people had the virus. The new Covid-19 cases were detected after 87,514 tests were done.

The UAE has conducted more than 16.7 million Covid-19 tests since the outbreak as part of a mass-screening strategy to minimize the coronavirus spread.