Latest: Live updates as coronavirus cases rise
The UAE has joined the front line of the global fight against Covid-19 after approving a nationwide rollout of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
But how does the vaccine compare to others now set for for wider public use – and can it end the pandemic?
How does the Sinopharm vaccine work ?
Developed by scientists at China’s state-owned pharmaceutical enterprise, the vaccine follows the tried-and-tested route of training the body’s immune system to detect and destroy viruses using injections of deactivated virus.
For the Covid-19 coronavirus, researchers used a compound which stops the virus from replicating, but still allow it to trigger a response from the immune system.
The deactivated virus method has been safely used for decades to create vaccines against viruses ranging from influenza and polio to rabies.
How is it given ?
By injection into a muscle – usually in the upper arm. Because the virus has been deactivated, the body’s response is relatively weak, so two injections are needed over 28 days.
How do we know it’s safe and effective ?
In April, Chinese officials approved small trials in volunteers to check that the vaccine triggered an immune response without serious side-effects. The results – published in the respected medical journal The Lancet – led to approval for a far larger "Phase III" study in collaboration with the UAE.
Since September, 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations in the age-range 18 to 60 have been given the vaccine.
While the results have not been formally published, according to the UAE health ministry the vaccine is 86 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, and 100 per cent effective in preventing moderate or severe cases of the disease.
But on December 30, 2020, Sinopharm announced that phase three trials of the vaccine showed that it was 79 per cent effective.
The results also showed that the vaccine successfully triggered an immune system response in 99 per cent of patients – but without any serious side-effects.
Further studies are continuing in the UAE and elsewhere, including Jordan, Brazil, Morocco and Serbia.
Why was it not tested in China ?
Ironically, because of China’s success in combating the virus through the rapid introduction of lockdowns. This has led to rates of infection dropping so low it is hard to test whether a vaccine protects against Covid-19.
Even so, in July Chinese officials authorised the emergency use of the vaccine, which has now been given to almost one million people. This is expected to give valuable insights into the rate of side-effects.
How does it compare to other approved Covid vaccines ?
Earlier this month, a vaccine developed by Pfizer and the German biotech company BioNTech became the first to announce positive early results from a Phase III study. Involving over 43,000 volunteers, the results showed a 95 per cent success in preventing Covid-19 after two doses, and no serious safety concerns.
It has become the first to be approved by independent regulators, following sign-off by officials in the UK. Approval in the US and European Union is expected to follow within weeks.
However, the vaccine is based on a radically different from that used in the Sinopharm vaccine. Instead of using deactivated virus, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reprogrammes the body’s own cells to create fragments of the virus themselves.
This is done via two injections of genetic instructions in the form of mRNA, which the cells use to make a part of the virus which trains the immune system to detect the full virus if infection occurs.
While the idea of “re-programming” healthy cells in this way has been around for many years, it has never been successfully used before. Attempts to use it to combat other diseases have led to serious side-effects, but experts point out that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine involves much lower doses.
Even so, reports of side-effects among three healthcare workers have led UK regulators to advise that those with a history of serious allergic reactions should not be given the vaccine.
In Dubai, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is initially available to people aged over 60, those with chronic diseases, people with disabilities, frontline workers and people in essential sectors.
It is available at seven healthcare centres in the emirate.
From April, the vaccine will be given to all age groups, officials said earlier this month.
Officials hope to vaccinate 70 per cent of the population by later this year as part of efforts to achieve 'herd immunity'.
The vaccine, which was found to be 95 per cent effective in late-stage trials, is administered for free on a voluntary basis.
UAE residents can register and book appointments for the vaccination through the DHA app or the DHA’s free number 800 342.
The Sinopharm vaccine is available across all health centres.
What other vaccines are available ?
According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 vaccines are currently under development. The next to win independent approval is expected to be the vaccine developed at Oxford University in collaboration with AstraZeneca.
This involves injecting a harmless, deactivated virus that has been modified to carry a part of the Covid virus on its surface. This triggers a reaction from the immune system, which is then primed to attack the real virus if infection occurs.
According to results based on 11,000 volunteers published in The Lancet earlier this month, the vaccine is 70 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic infections, with no serious side-effects.
Meanwhile, the Sputnik V vaccine developed in Russia uses a similar approach, but with two different viruses. It is claimed to be 95 per cent effective, with around a quarter of volunteers experiencing mild side-effects.
So are we close to bringing the pandemic under control ?
Despite the hoopla over the approval of the first vaccines, serious questions and challenges remain. While attention has focused on the effectiveness of the vaccines, the impressive figures relate only to prevention of Covid-19 – not protection against infection. It remains unclear whether vaccinated people can still carry the virus and thus inadvertently spread it to others.
Even if the vaccines are effective against infection, they will still fail to stop the pandemic unless enough people are vaccinated. Experts calculate that around 70 per cent of the population need to be treated to achieve so-called herd immunity, where so many people are protected that the virus can no longer thrive.
The logistics of making and delivering vast quantities of the vaccine around the world are daunting. Some of the vaccines – such as the mRNA types – have to be kept at very low temperatures until injected. The reluctance of people to be vaccinated – so-called vaccine hesitancy – may also prove to be a major barrier to ending the pandemic.
Robert Matthews is Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University, Birmingham, UK
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
If%20you%20go
%3Cp%3EThere%20are%20regular%20flights%20from%20Dubai%20to%20Kathmandu.%20Fares%20with%20Air%20Arabia%20and%20flydubai%20start%20at%20Dh1%2C265.%3Cbr%3EIn%20Kathmandu%2C%20rooms%20at%20the%20Oasis%20Kathmandu%20Hotel%20start%20at%20Dh195%20and%20Dh120%20at%20Hotel%20Ganesh%20Himal.%3Cbr%3EThird%20Rock%20Adventures%20offers%20professionally%20run%20group%20and%20individual%20treks%20and%20tours%20using%20highly%20experienced%20guides%20throughout%20Nepal%2C%20Bhutan%20and%20other%20parts%20of%20the%20Himalayas.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Step by step
2070km to run
38 days
273,600 calories consumed
28kg of fruit
40kg of vegetables
45 pairs of running shoes
1 yoga matt
1 oxygen chamber
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
The biog
Favourite film: Motorcycle Dairies, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Kagemusha
Favourite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Holiday destination: Sri Lanka
First car: VW Golf
Proudest achievement: Building Robotics Labs at Khalifa University and King’s College London, Daughters
Driverless cars or drones: Driverless Cars
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
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%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3ECystic%20fibrosis%20is%20a%20genetic%20disorder%20that%20affects%20the%20lungs%2C%20pancreas%20and%20other%20organs.%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EIt%20causes%20the%20production%20of%20thick%2C%20sticky%20mucus%20that%20can%20clog%20the%20airways%20and%20lead%20to%20severe%20respiratory%20and%20digestive%20problems.%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EPatients%20with%20the%20condition%20are%20prone%20to%20lung%20infections%20and%20often%20suffer%20from%20chronic%20coughing%2C%20wheezing%20and%20shortness%20of%20breath.%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ELife%20expectancy%20for%20sufferers%20of%20cystic%20fibrosis%20is%20now%20around%2050%20years.%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A
Results:
Men’s wheelchair 200m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 27.14; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 27.81; 3. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 27.81.
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RACECARD
4.30pm Jebel Jais – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (Turf) 1,000m
5pm: Jabel Faya – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (T) 1,000m
5.30pm: Al Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep – Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club – Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m
7pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Jebel Hafeet – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5