Abu Dhabi Public Sector Teachers In Line for Covid-19 Vaccine

Teachers at Abu Dhabi’s public schools have been grouped in with frontline workers, and become eligible to receive the UAE approved COVID-19 vaccine. No mention has been made of teachers in public schools in other emirates, or indeed in the country’s private schools.

The UAE approved virus comes from Chinese pharmaceutical giant, Sinopharm China National Biotec Group. The vaccine is currently undergoing Phase III trials in the country, as well as in Jordan, Bahrain and Egypt. Before the UAE’s regulatory approval, 31,000 people in the country had volunteered for the vaccine trials.

Public sector teachers, academic staff and their adult first-degree relatives has been categorised as priority groups for receiving the vaccine. Teachers are not required to take the vaccine, but must register voluntarily to receive it by September 24, according to newspaper reports.

According to initial reports, the vaccine was successful in creating antibodies in volunteers during the first two trial phases in China. Preliminary announcements about the Phase III trials in the UAE indicate that the vaccine is effective. So far, it has not generated any major side effects, even for the 1000 recipients said to be suffering from a chronic condition.

The vaccine trials in the UAE are being led by G42 Healthcare, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-based technology firm, Group 42, and overseen by the DoH and the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention. The medical portion of the trials are being conducted by the emirate’s public health provider, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha).

Two top officials at the Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DoH) — Abdullah Al Hamed, DoH chairman, and Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, DoH acting undersecretary — were the first two people to receive the vaccine in the UAE on July 16. They have already completed the 42-day trial period.