Right Health shows the way with most employees jabbed
As the UAE scales up its vaccination drive, firms and organisations heed the call — proving that they are one with nation. In this column Best Practice, features a company that has gone all out in supporting the drive to end Covid-19.
In a bid to protect the biggest stakeholders in the UAE’s battle against Covid-19, this UAE-based healthcare organisation launched a massive vaccination drive for its staff and their families.
Right Health Holdings, a multidisciplinary healthcare chain conducted a vaccination drive for eligible employees free of cost across its branches in Dubai, Ajman and Sharjah, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap).
The inoculation drive was held on January 30 at one of the Right Health Clinics. Four stations were set up for employees to get the vaccine.
“The initiative is in line with the UAE’s plan to vaccinate more than 50 per cent of the country’s population by the end of March,” said top officials at Right Health.
The group made Sinopharm vaccine accessible to its employees in this drive. Over 300 employees signed up to take the first dose of the vaccine. The second dose of vaccination will be conducted for the same employees after 21 days as per protocol.
Vikas Katoch, chief operating officer of Right Health Holdings, told Khaleej Times: “Right Health, as the name suggests, stands for right health not just for patients but also our valuable workforce — doctors, nurses, and paramedics — who are our biggest asset.”
“Our single biggest responsibility is always towards our frontline heroes who stand always to deliver the healthcare services uninterrupted to our patients. Hence their safety and wellbeing are always our top priority.
“With the vaccination drive, we hope to create a secure environment for our staff and their families as it is crucial to improve employee engagement,
satisfaction and productivity.”
The drive was embraced by the staff, and Dr Ibrahim, the RCM Director said, “The team today were excellent. I, my family and friends took the vaccine. It was a wonderful experience and now I feel much safer.”
Dr Sujaya Rajasekhar, a general surgeon, said: “Many of the staff and family members were running to get the vaccination and waiting in long queues. This was well organised — we could get vaccinated without much waiting. A good gesture indeed.”
Right Health, as the name suggests, stands for right health not just for patients but also our valuable workforce.” Vikas Katoch,
CEO, Right Health Holdings
T@HopeMarsMission embodies a message of inspiration, ambition, and achievement for the Arab world and the region’s entire youth. We are proud that the UAE, founded 5 decades ago, will become the 5th country to reach Mars.” Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid @HamdanMohammed
op space science experts are confident that today, the UAE will officially be the fifth country to reach the red planet. With the Hope Probe now approaching the most critical stage of its seven-month, 493-million-kilometre space odyssey — the experts are looking forward to the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) with optimism.
“I am highly optimistic and quite confident that the Mars Orbit Insertion will be performed and achieved perfectly well and Hope will go into the capture orbit as planned and then, later, into its permanent scientific orbit,” said Dr Nidhal Guessoum, professor of physics at American University of Sharjah, who along with Emirati astronaut Hazzaa AlMansouri was recently named among the top 100 leaders in space exploration for 2021.
“It is true that in the past (the first 30 years or so of Mars missions), many probes suffered various failures in reaching Mars, but the success rate has greatly improved in recent times.”
Dr Guessoum added: “The technology and checks are now vastly superior. Moreover, the multiple engines that Hope carries allows for
insurance that should one or two fail, the specialists in charge of the mission will have ways to make adjustments and save the mission.”
Hope’s historic journey — the Arab world’s first interplanetary space mission — has been “an emotional roller coaster” for citizens and expats in the country.
Hasan Al Hariri, CEO of Dubai Astronomy Group and director of Al Thuraya Astronomy Centre, said: “It’s a very sentimental and monumental time. Imagine the situation just eight years ago. If I would tell somebody that we would want to go to Mars, they would laugh at me
and, today, it’s happening. It’s a moment of a lifetime and I can’t believe we are going to Mars. I am so lucky to see it in my lifetime.
“I want to praise our leaders who jumpstarted the nation to doing something new. This mission has created such incredible momentum not just in the UAE and the Arab region but around the world. It has given the youth new motivation to go to space and engage with space missions. Therefore, the lesson learnt is dream big and we can do it. There is no impossible in life,” Al Hariri said.
Other experts also said one of the most important objectives of the mission was to spur the youth’s interest in studying science and technology. There has been a surge of engagement through various spacerelated outreach programmes within the region, steering the nation towards its goal of creating a knowledge-based economy.
Hariri said youngsters’ interest in exploring space science has been evident. “Just five years ago students were talking about getting into IT, becoming engineers in other fields. Now, they are expressing interest to become astronauts.”
The Hope mission, UAE’s first interplanetary mission, is reaching the most crucial point in its mission today, and people around the world are waiting with high expectations.
The Hope orbiter is a UAE Space Agency unmanned space exploration mission to Mars, which was launched in July 2020 from Japan. The probe has travelled around seven months on its journey of 493 million kilometres, which it will complete today. At that point, it will reach the crucial ‘Mars Orbit Insertion’ (MOI) stage — which means the probe will have to slow down to enable it to be captured by Mars’ gravity, to orbit the red planet. That would make the UAE the fifth country to reach the Martian orbit, after successful missions by the US, Russia, the EU, and India.
The Mars Orbit Insertion stage is called half an hour of terror! As Hope reaches close to the Martian orbit, a special manoeuvre will be performed to decrease its speed, enough for the planet’s gravity to capture the spacecraft into orbit. For orbit insertion, six Delta V thrusters will autonomously perform an action to fire the thrusters for 27 minutes to slow down the speed of the probe from more than 100,000 kilometres per hour down to 18,000kmph.
One of the difficulties is that the scientists will have no control — as because of the distance between Earth and Mars, any command sent to the spacecraft takes 11 minutes each way. Hence, all steps are pre-programmed. Also, contact will be temporarily lost as Hope travels behind Mars, creating a blackout period with no communication for a short time.
More than 50 per cent of Mars missions fail. Failure to perform the manoeuvre as planned could prevent the spacecraft from entering orbit. MOI will commence at 7.30pm (UAE time) tonight, but the signal confirming the start of the manoeuvre will reach Earth only 11 minutes later. Half the fuel will be burnt during this manoeuvre.
Nasa’s Deep Space Network radio antenna in Madrid, Spain, will be the first to know if orbit insertion was successful. After successful insertion, the mission will spend some time in the capture orbit as a transition to science phase.
During this phase, Hope’s instruments will be tested for two months before it transitions to its science orbit, using three further manoeuvres, which will be completed by April 2021.
Hope will use its three science instruments — a camera, infrared spectrometer and ultraviolet spectrometer — to provide a comprehensive view of the Martian atmosphere. Hope’s special Science Orbit enables it to conduct a series of scientific investigations, including tracking the planet’s weather that will advance our understanding of atmospheric variability on daily and seasonal timescales, and the processes by which gasses escape the atmosphere into space. It will also attempt to find out possible reasons behind its drastic climate changes, from the time it could sustain liquid water to today, when the atmosphere is so thin that water can exist only as ice or vapour.
What distinguishes Hope probe from past orbiters, is its unique scientific orbit. Most Mars orbiter missions in the past have orbits that are pole to pole, but Hope’s science orbit will be a nearly equatorial orbit, and it will allow the spacecraft to capture a complete view of the planet’s atmosphere, at all times of day in just 10 days.
The orbiter will study the Martian atmosphere over 685 Earth days. The data from the mission will be made freely available shortly after the spacecraft enters its final science orbit.
Hope’s special Science Orbit enables it to conduct a series of scientific investigations, including tracking the planet’s weather that will advance our understanding of atmospheric variability on daily and seasonal timescales