Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP / Getty Images
Dubai hopes one of the world’s fastest vaccination programs and rapid testing technology will achieve the goal of hosting the Expo 2020 event this year, after the coronavirus pandemic forced a delay.
The government is confident that vaccination programs will be successful to open the Expo on October 1 and says it is still possible that 25 million people will visit the city for the six-month event.
The Expo, which has been preparing Dubai for a decade, is intended to be one of the biggest events worldwide and generate billions of dollars for the government. The revival of the virus in recent months has made planning difficult and led to questions about whether it will need to be reduced.
Tokyo, which will host the Olympics in July, is facing similar problems, although authorities are insisting will continue.
“It’s just not realistic to change your target number because your factors are very fluid,” Expo 2020 CEO Reem Al Hashimi said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “We have introduced vaccinations in the UAE very aggressively, but so have many other countries around the world.”
The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, has administered nearly 1.8 million vaccine doses and has the second highest vaccination rate per 100 people worldwide to Israel. The country has also taken the lead in testing per capita, and Al Hashimi said there will be a testing facility on site.
More than 39.7 million shots: Covid-19 vaccine detection
‘We hope things will be better in October than we were when we had to postponed the event last April, ”said Al Hashimi.
Dubai is sticking to its schedule this year to host the delayed Expo 2020
Dubai is also reviewing the legacy of Expo 2020 as a commercial and residential space. The pandemic has exacerbated a downturn in property in the emirate, the Middle East’s business district, where excessive supply and economic uncertainty have been driving prices down for years.
“We are not going to focus on anything if it no longer makes sense,” Al Hashimi said. However, due to the feature of the website, we do not completely exclude it. We take parts of it where it makes sense, but we also redesign what the overall programming of the website’s legacy looks like. ”
The future of the site will still be “seeped through technology because it’s a 5G site,” she said.
Expo 2020 sal open a sustainability pavilion to the public on January 22 through April 10. The opening of the new pavilion is a “preview for the domestic audience” as well as the international one on Dubai’s idea of sustainability, Al Hashimi said.
– Assisted by Desley Humphrey