UAE Covid cases DOUBLE in just two weeks since influencers flocked to Dubai as country rolls out vaccine
THE United Arab Emirates is pushing to vaccinate half of its citizens by April to combat a shocking surge in coronavirus cases.
The holiday hotspot - which has recently attracted reality influencers like Kelsey Stratford and Chloe Ferry - has seen cases double in a fortnight.
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The startling rise led to the UAE being removed from Britain's travel corridor list so travellers will now need to self-isolate on their return.
Now it wants of vaccinate half its 10million citizens by the end of March, .
It has already given jabs to more than one in ten and only lags behind Israel in doses administered per head of population.
The huge migrant workforce, which makes up around 90 per cent of the population, will also benefit from the rapid rollout at 127 medical centres.
The city of Dubai plans to vaccinate seven out of 10 of its total population by the end of this year.
The first jabs will be for "priority groups", including those 60 and older, people with certain medical conditions and frontline workers.
By April it hopes to start vaccinating the "general public".
This month, the UAE has already worryingly broken many of its Covid records and on Saturday it was hit by its highest number of recorded daily cases with 2,998.
The country also announced 2,404 new daily infections on Monday, with three recorded deaths.
The infection rise comes after many British influencers were seen living it up in Dubai during the pandemic. Although the two are not connected.
However, the high-profile influencers have faced a backlash from fellow celebs.
Kym Marsh was among those slamming stars holidaying in Dubai while coronavirus cripples much of the world.
The Coronation Street star, 44, made her opinions on the matter clear in her most recent column for .
She said: "Lots of influencers seem to be going abroad.
"If you’ve got to travel for work then fair enough, but I personally would be putting off that trip and staying at home.
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“From what I can see from the pictures of people in Dubai, every man and his dog is there and it doesn’t look particularly socially distanced!
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“It looked like lockdown and coronavirus wasn’t happening and I can see it would be easy to forget about social distancing.
“You could pick it up and then bring it back. I think we should just shut the borders and none of us travel anywhere.”