Daily US Times: The United Arab Emirates said in a statement that a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective. The UAE government provided few details about it but marked the first public release of information on the efficacy of the vaccine.

The announcement brought yet another shot into the worldwide race for a coronavirus vaccine to end the pandemic, a scientific effort that has seen Russia and China compete with Western firms for an effective inoculation.

While questions remain about the Sinopharm jab, already at least one country outside of China plans to roll it out in a mass-vaccination campaign.

The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, conducted a trial beginning in September of the vaccine by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm. The trial involved 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. Volunteers between 18 and 60 years old received two doses of the Chinese vaccine over 28 days.

The UAE’s Health and Prevention Ministry announced the results through in a statement on the state-run WAM news agency, saying they “have reviewed Sinopharm CNBG’s interim analysis of the Phase III trials.”

The statement said: “The analysis shows no serious safety concerns,” without detailing whether any participant suffered side effects.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the announced results included only those taking part in the testing in the country or if they also include results from China and somewhere else. The statement described the vaccine as receiving “official registration”, but did not elaborate what that meant.

Emirati officials and Sinopharm did not respond to questions from AP news agency.

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