The United Arab Emirates will only vaccinate citizens and residents temporarily or with certain medical conditions, State media reported on Sunday.
The interim policy change was made following an increase in disease in recent weeks “to ensure the community has an immune system and has the disease”, WAM said, quoting the Department of Health.
Over the next four to six weeks the authorities will try to vaccinate older people and people with certain diseases as much as possible. Other nominations will be available in other categories of people, he added.
The move comes as daily infections triple in six weeks reaching a record 3,977 on February 3 in the UAE. The Gulf government did not provide for the allocation of individual funds.
The vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has been available to all adults in the Gulf country.
Dubai also made Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca drugs available to citizens and residents, with a special focus on the elderly, those with chronic illnesses and advanced careers.
The health department reported 3 093 new cases on Sunday.