UAE overtakes Seychelles to lead Covid-19 vaccine rankings

More than 15.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered

People wait to get vaccinated at Barsha Hall in Barsha, a suburb of Dubai.

Irum Fatima Tapal gets vaccinated against Covid-19 at Barsha Hall in Dubai

Lateef Painat receives the Pfizer BioNTech shot

It was a busy first week at Barsha Hall, where 4,000 people can be vaccinated in a day

Barsha Hall has 20 check-in counters, 50 vaccination booths and five observation rooms

About 80 healthcare staff work at the site

Lateef Painat, a Dubai resident, gets ready to be vaccinated at the newly opened Barsha Hall

The UAE has moved to the top of the global coronavirus vaccination rankings, with almost three quarters of the public having received at least one dose.

Data compiled by Bloomberg's vaccine tracker revealed that the Emirates overtook the Seychelles, which had given enough doses to cover 71.7 per cent of its population of fewer than 100,000 people.

The latest figures released by UAE officials revealed that 73.8 per cent of the population had received at least one dose. Almost 64 per cent were fully vaccinated.

More than 15.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have been given to the UAE public since a national inoculation drive began in December.

This equates to 156.76 doses for every 100 people.

In May, the UAE came out on top in a league table of vaccinations for every 100 people compiled by Our World in Data, a widely used data gathering service.

Mass testing and a widespread immunisation campaign remain central to the UAE's efforts to contain the pandemic.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health and Prevention approved the Moderna vaccine for emergency use.

Five vaccines are now registered in the Emirates.

China's Sinopharm shot and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are the most widely distributed. Russia's Sputnik V and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have also been authorised by health officials.

The authorities have sought to expand the UAE's vaccination campaign in recent months. The Pfizer-BioNTech shot, initially introduced in Dubai, was approved in Abu Dhabi in May.

Use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was also extended to include children aged between 12 and 15 by the Ministry of Health and Prevention in the same month.

Covid-19 case numbers have declined in recent days, an encouraging trend because testing rates remain high.

Daily infection rates hit a peak of close to 4,000 in early February but have remained below 2,000 for the past five days.

PCR testing rates regularly exceed 200,000 each day and topped 300,000 for the first time on June 30.