(Adds details from source)
DUBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Dubai will start vaccinating people
with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot, the state
media office said on Tuesday as the United Arab Emirates battles
its biggest outbreak since the pandemic begun.
The first shipment has arrived from India, the media office
said in a tweet. It did not say how many doses were received or
when inoculations would start.
A source aware of the vaccine shipments said 200,000 doses
had been shipped on Tuesday under a commercial agreement between
Dubai authorities and the Serum Institute of India (SII).
SII, which is supplying the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, had no immediate comment.
India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted:
"Made in India vaccines reach Dubai. A special friend, a special
relationship."
Dubai is already inoculating residents, free of charge, with
the Pfizer-BioNTech and China National Pharmaceutical Group
(Sinopharm) vaccines.
The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management
Authority reported 3,310 new cases on Tuesday, down from a peak
of 3,966 on Jan. 28.
The UAE does not disclose where in the country cases are
being reported, though Dubai has recently tightened restrictions
on hotels, bars, restaurants and shopping centres, where
capacity has been limited.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and Sanjeev Miglani
and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Mark Potter and
Giles Elgood)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
