Photo used for illustrative purpose.

Syed Shayaan Bakht, Staff Reporter

The UAE authorities said that the COVID-19 vaccines available in the country that have proven effective in reducing infection rates, though not preventing it completely and thus urged everyone to keep following the precautionary measures.

It was learnt from the data available that the vaccines have been proven successful in reducing hospital admissions, intensive care rates, and even reducing the death rate.

Gulf Today looked into the data of the inoculation drive and revealed that five vaccines have been administered in the country.

They are:

Sinopharm

In December 2020, the UAE Health Ministry officially registered the coronavirus vaccine produced by Chinese drug giant Sinopharm.

It is believed it was 86 per cent effective according to analysis of third-phase trials.

Sinopharm was the first COVID vaccine approved in the UAE.

Pfizer-BioNTech

On Dec.22, 2020, UAE announced the emergency registration of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) started its free vaccination drive against COVID-19 using this vaccine from the next.

Sputnik V

On Jan. 21, 2021, the UAE announced its approval of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the UAE.

The vaccine is based on human adenoviral vector-based platform.

Its effectiveness against COVID-19 is confirmed at 91.4 per cent, while its efficacy against severe cases of the disease is 100 per cent.

Oxford-AstraZeneca

In February 2021, Dubai Health Authority

added the AstraZeneca vaccine to its authorised list of Covid-19 vaccines provided at medical facilities.

The first shipment of the vaccine was received from India, in cooperation with the Indian Foreign Ministry.

Moderna

In July 2021, the UAE approved emergency use of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

The UAE is making concerted efforts to keep the virus in check.

The move was made after clinical trials and approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The authorities are clearly concerned about the general wellbeing and health of the residents.

The UAE authorities said the rise of COVID mutants was responsible for spike in cases.

Recently, there has been increased talk about the Delta mutant and what made it worrying is that the speed of its spread was high compared to the previous mutant.

International studies indicate that the transmissibility of the Delta mutant has increased by about 40-60%.