UAE to Start Vaccinating Children Aged 3-17 with Sinopharm

UAE is going to start providing China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to children aged 3-17, the government said on Monday.

The health ministry said the decision comes after clinical trials and extensive evaluations, according to the government. However, it did not provide any further details.

Authorities stated in June the trial would monitor the immune response of 900 children.

The United Arab Emirates, which has among the world's highest immunisation rates, was already providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15.

On Sunday, the health ministry said that 78.95% of the UAE population of roughly 9 million had received one vaccine dose while 70.57% had been fully vaccinated.

The UAE registered 1,519 new coronavirus infections on Sunday to take its total to 682,377 cases and 1,951 deaths.

In this sense, the state 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.