Coronavirus: UAE reports 1,359 Covid-19 cases, 1,268 recoveries, 1 death

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Friday reported 1,359 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,268 recoveries and 1 death.

Total active cases stand at 17,999.

The new cases were detected through 279,369 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE on July 22 are 980,325, while total recoveries stand at 959,996. The death toll now stands at 2,330.

Over 175.1 million PCR tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Joe Biden, the President of the United States, has tested positive for Covid-19. According to a White House statement on Thursday, he is currently experiencing mild symptoms and will continue working, but in isolation.

Biden, 79, has a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional dry cough— symptoms which he began to experience late on Wednesday, White House physician Kevin O'Connor said, in a note released on Thursday. Biden had begun taking the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, in response to these symptoms.

Fully vaccinated and twice boosted, Biden said he was "doing well" in a video posted on his Twitter account. In the 21-second clip, he also said he was "getting a lot of work done", and would continue with his duties. A photograph on his Twitter account showed him smiling, wearing a blazer and sitting at a desk with papers.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN body promoting development is warning that the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the crisis in Ukraine have led to "an unprecedented reversal" of decades of progress in combatting global poverty and hunger and ensuring quality education for children everywhere.

Collen Kelapile, who is president of the Economic and Social Council known as ECOSOC, said there is growing concern that funding for critical UN development goals, including ending extreme poverty and hunger by 2030 might be neglected by Western donor nations supporting Ukraine militarily and financially in its attacks against Russia.

ECOSOC's message is: "Please, let's not forget other pre-existing challenges… We need to finance development. We need to finance climate. We need to finance many other conflicts around the world," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

• Dubai