The UAE announced 375 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 59,921 and totally 53,202 people had recovered from the virus, total number of deaths is 347 as of July 29.
The UAE’s decision to require pre-arrival COVID-19 PCR tests for all inbound passengers will come into effect on August 1. Authorities have announced that airlines will accept tests from locally approved clinics for passengers travelling to the UAE from countries without a UAE-affiliated COVID-19 testing center. Passengers from select countries will be tested again upon arrival in the UAE. All passengers traveling from the UAE to the UK and EU countries will be required to take a PCR test before departure.
UAE health authorities have issued a permit for up to 15,000 volunteers to take part in new trials for the third phase of inactive COVID-19 vaccine research being conducted in the UAE. The world-leading trials are the result of cooperation between Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi, G42 Healthcare, and Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm CNBG.
The R0, or reproduction number that tracks the spread of COVID-19, has fallen in the UAE, con- firming that the pandemic is on the decline. The R0 now stands at 0.74, wherein a value of less than 1 indicates that the number of cases will continue to decrease due to a significantly reduced rate of infection.
The UAE aviation industry has introduced new measures to provide confidence to passengers. Emirates is now the world’s first airline to offer COVID-19 insurance to all passengers free of charge, regardless of travel class or destination. Passengers will be automatically enrolled in coverage for medical and quarantine expenses.
The UAE participated in the Second Extraordinary G-20 Sherpa Meeting to discuss its commitment to international efforts to combat COVID-19, underscoring the importance of focusing on COVID-19’s impact on developing and least-developed countries and welcoming plans for a G-20 Emergency COVID-19 Response and Recovery Plan in African and Low Income and Developing Countries.
The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi and Khalifa University have developed a reagent to extract COVID-19 RNA. Local production of the reagent, which was created in two weeks, will increase the scope and pace of testing, which has already surpassed 4.5 million tests.
Additional COVID-19 rapid screening centers will be set up at entry points to Abu Dhabi in the coming days. The DPI testing technique developed by the UAE’s QuantLase Imaging Lab produces results within five minutes to enable the screening of thousands of people per day.
More public beaches, parks, and theme parks have reopened in Abu Dhabi for the first time since March with stringent precautionary measures in place. Capacity in restaurants outside commercial centers has also been raised to 80 percent. Many UAE citizens and residents are opting for staycations over the Eid Al Adha break, with malls, gyms, cinemas, entertainment centers, and waterparks open across the country.
The UAE sent a third shipment of urgent medical aid this week to Colombia. To date, the UAE has provided over 1,144 metric tons of COVID-19 aid to 90 countries, assisting more than 1 million medical professionals.
