Coronavirus: UAE reports 381 Covid-19 cases, 389 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Tuesday reported 381 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 389 recoveries and no deaths.

Total active cases stand at 14,056.

The new cases were detected through 205,134 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on May 31 are 908,205, while total recoveries stand at 891,844. The death toll now stands at 2,305.

Shanghai authorities say they will take some major steps Wednesday toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month Covid-19 lockdown that has throttled the national economy and largely bottled up millions of people in their homes.

Full bus and subway service will be restored as will basic rail connections with the rest of China, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak.

Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis for students and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will continue to reopen gradually with no more than 75 per cent of their total capacity. Cinemas and gyms will remain closed.

Officials, who set June 1 as the target date for reopening earlier in May, appear ready to accelerate what has been a gradual easing in recent days. A few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time. In at least some chat groups, cynicism about the slow pace and stop-and-go nature of opening up gave way Tuesday to excitement about the prospect of being able to move about freely in the city for the first time since the end of March.

Meanwhile, North Korea has lifted movement restrictions imposed in the capital Pyongyang after its first admission of Covid-19 outbreak weeks ago, media reported, as the isolated country says the virus situation is now under control.

The North has been in a heated battle against an unprecedented Covid wave since declaring a state of emergency and imposing a nationwide lockdown this month, fuelling concerns about a lack of vaccines, medical supplies and food shortages.

As of Sunday, the restrictions had been lifted, Japan's Kyodo news agency said, citing an unnamed source in Beijing.

A spokesman for South Korea's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said it could not confirm the report, as the North's state media had not announced the decision.

The Kyodo report came shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a politburo meeting to discuss revising anti-epidemic restrictions, assessing the situation over the country's first Covid outbreak was "improving."

• Dubai