Coronavirus: UAE reports 512 Covid-19 cases, 536 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Tuesday reported 512 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 536 recoveries and no deaths.

Total active cases stand at 18,818.

The new cases were detected through 346,725 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on August 30 are 1,014,899, while total recoveries stand at 993,740. The death toll now stands at 2,341.

Starting next week, Americans will no longer be able to order free at-home Covid-19 tests from a website set up by the US government, due to limited supply arising from a lack of congressional funding.

The COVIDTests.gov website, set up during the Omicron variant record surge in cases, helped US households take Covid-19 tests at no cost.

In January, President Joe Biden had pledged to procure 1 billion free tests for Americans, including 500 million available through the website. However, ordering through the program will be suspended on September 2.

The reason for this is because "Congress has not provided the Covid-19 funding we need to replenish the nation's stockpile of tests", said a senior administration official.

The government will no longer take orders through this program to ensure that some tests are still available in the fall, in case there is a rise in infections, the official said.

"We have already distributed over 600 million tests through this program, and every household has had the opportunity to place three orders, for a total of 16 tests," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, at a briefing.

Alternative ways of getting at-home tests will remain, the official said, including getting them reimbursed by private health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, which collectively cover over 92 per cent of Americans.

The government will continue to distribute free tests directly to long-term care facilities, schools, child care and early learning centres, community health centres, and food banks. The government will also keep supporting around 15,000 free testing sites in pharmacies and libraries.

"If Congress provides funding, we will expeditiously resume distribution of free tests through COVIDTests.gov," the official said.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization’s top director in the Western Pacific, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, has been indefinitely removed from his post, according to internal correspondence obtained by The Associated Press.

Kasai’s removal comes months after an AP investigation revealed that dozens of staffers accused him of racist, abusive and unethical behaviour that undermined the UN agency’s efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in Asia.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff in the Western Pacific in an email on Friday that Kasai was “on leave” without elaborating further. Tedros said Deputy Director-General, Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, would be arriving Tuesday in Manila, WHO’s regional headquarters, to “ensure business continuity.” Two senior WHO officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said Kasai had been put on extended administrative leave after internal investigators substantiated some of the misconduct complaints.

In a statement, WHO said it was unknown how long Kasai would be away. The U.N. health agency said the investigation into him was continuing and that it was believed to be the first time a regional director had been relieved of their duties. Kasai did not respond to requests for comment but previously denied he used racist language or acted unprofessionally.

• Abu Dhabi
• Dubai