The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved the usage of Sinopharm for children aged between 3 and 17 years. The decision is directed to help the country further ramp up its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The approval for the administration of Chinese to children aged 3-17 came after a successful a trial involving 900 children in Abu Dhabi, the UAE government made the announcement on Twitter on Monday.
The UAE has already vaccinated more than 64 per cent of it’s population. More than 15.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administrated in the country.
The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention thanked the “hero” children who were part of the study to monitor effectiveness and side effects of the vaccine.
“The decision comes after clinical trials and extensive evaluations and is based on the emergency-use authorisation and local evaluations,” the ministry announced.
According to reports, the study was held under the supervision of UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) and conducted with full consent of parents of children involved.
The young volunteers were kept under intense care and were closely monitored during the process. To avoid unnecessary criticism, children from the Abu Dhabi royal family were also included in the study.
The results of the research will be released later. The UAE is the first country in the Middle East region to have conducted a study of the vaccine’s effectiveness for this age group. China, the United States, United Kingdom and India have also performed similar clinical trials over the past few months.
Dr Ahmed Alsuwaidi, Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases, at the United Arab Emirates University said that research so far shows that Covid-19 vaccines are remarkably effective and safe.
“In addition, children have been safely receiving vaccines for multiple diseases and viruses for generations. The Sinopharm vaccine is similar in concept to all of these vaccines,” Dr Alsuwaidi said.
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