Emirates airline, the largest airline and flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates, began a COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday for its staff based in the country.

“The Emirates Group today rolled out a COVID-19 vaccination programme for its workforce based in the UAE, with priority being placed on the frontline aviation workforce, including cabin crew, flight deck and other operationally focused roles,” the airline said on Twitter.

“Emirates is one of the first airlines in the world to roll out a COVID-19 vaccination programme for its workforce, ensuring the health and wellbeing of aviation employees who serve the travelling public and help move essential goods around the world,” it added.

Emirates has made available the Pfizer-BioNTech and China’s Sinopharm vaccines’ doses.

Operations to inoculate staff will run for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, “to ensure as many essential aviation workers as possible can get the vaccine”, AFP quoted the airline’s statement.

The UAE began inoculations in mid-December in capital Abu Dhabi after approving Sinopharm, while Dubai began later that month using the jab developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

The country has reported 253,000 COVID-19 cases, including 745 deaths so far.

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According to health officials, it has already inoculated over 1.8 million of its approximately 10 million population.

As much of the world tightens lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus, Dubai reopened its doors for tourism in July last year.

Abu Dhabi, which with large oil reserves is less dependent on tourism, has taken a more conservative approach, generally requiring quarantine on arrival.

Tourism has long been an economic mainstay of Dubai, which welcomed more than 16 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic struck.