The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved Sinopharm's protein-based COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and it will be available to the public as a booster dose starting January 2022, the health ministry said in a statement on state media on Monday.

The vaccine will be produced and distributed by a joint venture between the UAE's Group 42 and China National Biotech Group (CNBG), a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), the ministry said.

The approval came following a UAE-based study that included individuals who were previously vaccinated with two doses of Sinopharm CNBG's inactivated vaccine, the ministry added.

Data from UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention shows that over 91 percent of its eligible residents had completed full regime of vaccination against COVID-19 as of December 26. In addition to Sinopharm's, the UAE has also approved vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna. 

(With input from Reuters)