Coronavirus: UAE reports 1,386 Covid-19 cases, 1,382 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Monday reported 1,386 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,382 recoveries and no deaths.

Total active cases stand at 17,401.

The new cases were detected through 201,623 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE on July 18 are 974,802, while total recoveries stand at 955,076. The death toll now stands at 2,325.

Over 173.5 million PCR tests have been conducted in the country so far

Canada is set to re-establish its mandatory random Covid-19 testing at four major airports from Tuesday.

The Government of Canada paused mandatory random testing for those entering Canada by air on June 11, 2022, as part of a broader strategy to transition to testing outside of the airports.

Citing the safety of Canadians as a number one priority since the beginning of the pandemic, a Government press release read, "Mandatory random testing will resume as of July 19, 2022, for travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated, arriving in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto."

"The Government of Canada set up entry restrictions, testing, and quarantine requirements to manage risks at the border. Testing was and remains an important part of our surveillance program to track the importation of Covid-19 virus into Canada and identify new variants of concern," it added.

To qualify as a fully vaccinated traveller to Canada, travellers must have been vaccinated with a primary series of a Covid-19 vaccine accepted by the Government of Canada for the purpose of travel at least 14 calendar days before entering Canada.

All testing for air travellers, for both those who qualify as fully vaccinated and partially or unvaccinated people, will be completed outside of airports, either via an in-person appointment at select testing provider locations and pharmacies, or a virtual appointment for a self-swab test.

Travellers who do not qualify as fully vaccinated, unless exempt, must continue to test on Day 1 and Day 8 of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Meanwhile, North Korea is on the path to "finally defuse" a crisis stemming from its first acknowledged outbreak of Covid-19, the state news agency said on Monday, while Asian neighbours battle a fresh wave of infections driven by Omicron subvariants.

The North says 99.98 per cent of its 4.77 million fever patients since late April have fully recovered, but due to an apparent lack of testing, it has not released any figures of those that proved positive.

"The anti-epidemic campaign is improved to finally defuse the crisis completely," KCNA said. It added that the North had reported 310 more people with fever symptoms.

The World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea's claims, saying last month it believed the situation was getting worse, not better, amid an absence of independent data.

The North's declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade long hampered by the pandemic, one analyst said.

"Under the current trend, North Korea could announce in less than a month that its Covid crisis is over and that could be a prelude to resuming cross-border trade," said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Sejong Institute's North Korea studies centre in South Korea.