All government employees in the United Arab Emirates’ capital must have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and had their booster dose to be able to enter the workplace, the Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee has announced.

The rules will come into effect January 10 and comes alongside previous mandates that workers in the public sector must take a free PCR test every seven days.

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The rules do not apply to those have medical reasons.

Meanwhile, during this week’s UAE’s weekly COVID-19 briefing, held by the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) on Wednesday, officials urged the importance of booster shots, saying: “Studies have significantly shown vaccine and booster shots significantly help reduce the rates of hospitalization and death, as well as prevent the spread of the virus variants.”

“We urge eligible individuals to take their booster shots to protect themselves, especially elderly people and those with chronic diseases, to support the national efforts to address the pandemic and counter variants.”

The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) reported on Wednesday they had registered 2,708 new COVID-19 cases in the previous last 24 hours.

The ministry revealed the total number of recorded cases in the UAE had risen to 774,897. No new virus-related deaths have been reported.

The UAE – one of the world leaders in vaccination rates – has been stepping up its vaccination campaign amid a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

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More than 22 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to date.

Meanwhile, about three million PCR tests have been conducted across the country in past week.

Read more:

More than 200,000 UAE residents given COVID-19 jab in 7 days, 22 mln doses in total