Hundreds of Chinese citizens on visit visas to the UAE will receive their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday.
About 200 have registered for the Sinopharm vaccine at the Safa healthcare centre in Dubai, with inoculations to be administered by the Dubai Health Authority.
Hend Al Ketbi, DHA’s director of nursing for primary healthcare centres, said there was available capacity to vaccinate more than the 200 who had signed up for the opening day of the campaign.
Chinese visitors are the first non-residents to be offered Covid-19 vaccines in the UAE after an agreement was confirmed on Sunday.
Chinese grandmothers carrying toddlers were among dozens to arrive early at the centre on Thursday morning.
Two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine will be provided to Chinese citizens over the age of 16 who are without a residency visa and hold a short-term visa.
'We feel safe'
Yang Chongqi, 61, from Beijing, beamed as she carried her year-old granddaughter into the vaccination room.
Aladdin Essam, her Egyptian son-in-law, said the vaccination was a protective shield for his family.
“You cannot imagine how safe we feel that even Chinese visitors can get the vaccine,” he said.
“This has always felt like a second home. You feel that in any emergency you will be taken care of.”
Ms Chongqi has been in Dubai for the past three months to take care of her grandchild.
'We've been waiting for this'
Alice Zhang will be among the first to be vaccinated.
“I’m very excited. I will feel safer,” Ms Zhang, 31, told The National.
“I have been waiting for this and hoping to see this process start. Now it is my turn and I feel happy.”
She arrived in Dubai in November and decided to remain after her flight home was cancelled last year.
Many Chinese citizens on temporary visas extended their stay in the Emirates because of a lack of flights home.
