The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will start providing China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to children aged between three and 17, the UAE government said on Twitter on Monday.
It cited the health ministry as saying that the decision comes after clinical trials and extensive evaluations, without providing any details.
وزارة الصحة ووقاية المجتمع تعلن عن توفر لقاح "#ساينوفارم" للفئة العمرية من سن 3 – 17 سنة، وذلك بناء على نتائج الدراسات السريرية والتقييم الصارم المتبع لتصريح الاستخدام الطارئ والتقييم المحلي الذي يتوافق مع اللوائح المعتمدة
— UAEGOV (@uaegov) August 2, 2021
Authorities said in June the trial would monitor the immune response of 900 children.
The Gulf Arab state, which has one of the world’s highest immunization rates, was already providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15.
The health ministry said on Sunday that 78.95 percent of the UAE population of roughly nine million had received one vaccine dose while 70.57pc had been fully vaccinated.
The UAE, the region’s tourism and trade hub, registered 1,519 new coronavirus infections on Sunday to take its total to 682,377 cases and 1,951 deaths. It does not provide a breakdown for each of its seven emirates.
It led Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine produced by China’s state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm and has started manufacturing it under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42.
