Coronavirus: UAE reports 1,690 Covid-19 cases, 1,568 recoveries, 3 deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Wednesday reported 1,690 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,568 recoveries and 3 deaths.

Total active cases stand at 17,466.

The new cases were detected through 264,135 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE on July 6 are 956,382, while total recoveries stand at 936,594. The death toll now stands at 2,322.

A small new study published Tuesday by scientists at the US National Institutes of Health suggests that the immune response triggered by coronavirus infections damages the brain's blood vessels and could be responsible for long Covid symptoms.

The paper, published in the journal Brain, was based on brain autopsies from nine people who died suddenly after contracting the virus.

Rather than detecting evidence of Covid in the brain, the team found it was the people's own antibodies that attacked the cells lining the brain's blood vessels, causing inflammation and damage.

This discovery could explain why some people have lingering effects from infection including headache, fatigue, loss of taste and smell, and inability to sleep as well as "brain fog" — and may also help devise new treatments for long Covid.

NIH scientist Avindra Nath, the paper's senior author, said in a statement: "Patients often develop neurological complications with Covid-19, but the underlying pathophysiological process is not well understood."

"We had previously shown blood vessel damage and inflammation in patients' brains at autopsy, but we didn't understand the cause of the damage. I think in this paper we've gained important insight into the cascade of events."

Meanwhile, tens of millions of people were under lockdown in China on Wednesday as businesses in a major tourist city were forced to shut their doors and fresh clusters sparked fears of a return to blanket restrictions.

Health authorities reported over 300 infections Wednesday, with clusters found in the historic northern city of Xi’an — home to the Terracotta Army — as well as the country’s biggest city Shanghai.

The fresh cases and the official response to them have deepened fears that China may be set to return to the kinds of strict restrictions seen earlier this year, when Beijing’s hardline zero-Covid policy saw tens of millions locked down for weeks on end.

In Shanghai, some residents on social media Tuesday reported receiving government food rations — a throwback to the month’s long confinement in the spring.

And Xi’an — a historic city of 13 million that endured a month-long lockdown at the end of last year — was placed back under “temporary control measures” after 29 infections were found, mostly among waste recycling workers, since Saturday.

Public entertainment venues including pubs, internet cafes and karaoke bars would shut their doors from midnight on Wednesday, the city government said in a notice.

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