December 23, 2020 3:11:16 pm
Pfizer and BioNTech have said their vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the illness. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg)
Dubai plans to start a free vaccination campaign from Wednesday using the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
“Extensive vaccination campaign against Covid-19 kicks off in Dubai on Wednesday,” the city’s media office tweeted. “Vaccination will use Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine and is free of charge.”
Pfizer and BioNTech have said their vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the illness. The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, has been conducting trials on China’s state-backed coronavirus vaccine and earlier this month said the shot protected 86% of people against Covid-19.
Dubai, the Middle East’s business hub, locked down the city for about a month earlier this year to halt the spread of the virus. Its flagship Emirates airline grounded passenger flights and the Expo 2020 exhibition scheduled to start in October was delayed by a year. Flights have since resumed operations.
The UAE diagnosed over 195,000 people with the virus since the start of the outbreak. The Gulf nation reported more than a thousand cases a day for the past two months after they dropped to as low as 164 in August. The country has a case-fatality rate of 0.3%, among the lowest globally, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
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