After testing the vaccine on 31,000 volunteers, UAE announces the emergency use of the vaccine developed by Sinopharm.
The United Arab Emirates on Monday granted the approval for emergency use of a coronavirus vaccine while the trials are in the sixth week in the Gulf Arab state.
The phase 3 trials of the COVID-19 vaccine are being carried out the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm and the trials have begun in July and are expected to end soon.
On Monday, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management authority in a tweet said that the defense heroes who are at high risk of contracting the disease will be first given the vaccine.
The announcement comes amid the surge in the coronavirus cases in the United Arab Emirates which reported around 1000 new states. Reportedly, this surge is the highest in the country ever since the start of the pandemic.
Moreover, there were 777 new cases that were reported on Monday.
Emergency use of the vaccine, while it is still in the testing period, was granted after 31,000 volunteers have already received the vaccine and have not reported any side effects.
Mild side effects were reported but there was no case of severe damage to any volunteer. Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers who were suffering from chronic ailments saw no serious complications.
Sinopharm, the Chian based company has secured the rights to conduct the human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in the UAE in June. the experimental vaccine has successfully passed the phase 1 and phase 2 trials and all the volunteers who took the vaccine shots have generated antibodies after two doses in the span of 28 days.
The Abu Dhabi government has clarified this in July itself.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccine generated by Sinopharm is an inactivated vaccine which is made with either the killed virus or with the protein from the same virus.
Inactivated vaccines are well used and have been used to treat influenza and measles.
In August, Russia became the first country in the world to grant a regulatory approval for its coronavirus vaccine after less than two months of human trials. Russia’s Sputnik V is the first vaccine that has been registered for use by the public.
By Gayatri Yellayi
