Coronavirus: UAE reports 2,902 Covid-19 cases, 1,285 recoveries, 2 deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Wednesday reported 2,902 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,285 recoveries and two deaths.

Total active cases stand at 48,067.

The new cases were detected through 518,300 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on January 19 are 813,931, while total recoveries stand at 763,664. The death toll now stands at 2,200.

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The Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, the World Health Organisation chief said on Tuesday, cautioning against a narrative that the fast-spreading Omicron variant is risk-free.

“This pandemic is nowhere near over,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.

The UN health agency chief warned against dismissing as mild the coronavirus variant Omicron, which has spread like wildfire around the globe since it was first detected in southern Africa in November.

Additionally, people with mild Covid-19 who do not suffer any other traditional "long Covid" symptoms can still exhibit deteriorated attention and memory six to nine months after infection, a study by Britain's Oxford University has found.

Cognitive issues impacting concentration levels, along with forgetfulness and fatigue, are features of long Covid - a condition that afflicts some after an initial bout of infection - but it has not been established how widespread issues with attention span might be following Covid-19 infection.

Meanwhile, tourism arrivals around the world are not expected to return to their pre-pandemic levels until 2024 at the earliest, the World Tourism Organisation said Tuesday.

The highly contagious Omicron variant will “disrupt the recovery” in early 2022 after last year saw four per cent growth over 2020, according to the Madrid-based UN agency’s World Tourism Barometer.

Tourism revenue in 2020 was 72 per cent down on the previous year — which closed with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Dubai