Coronavirus: UAE reports 725 Covid-19 cases, 2,391 recoveries, 1 death

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Sunday reported 725 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 2,391 recoveries and one death.

Over 133.8 million PCR tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Total active cases stand at 53,932.

The new cases were detected through 338,195 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on February 20 are 874,607, while total recoveries stand at 818,381. The death toll now stands at 2,294.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to set out plans next week to remove self-isolation requirements for people infected with Covid-19, his office said on Saturday.

Britain would become the first major European country to allow people who know they are infected with Covid-19 to freely use shops, public transport and go to work — a move many of his health advisors think is risky.

“Covid will not suddenly disappear, and we need to learn to live with this virus and continue to protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms,” Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson will also give more details on how Britain will guard against future coronavirus variants through ongoing surveillance, amid reports that the government wants to end free testing and scale back public health studies.

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Australia will welcome international tourists on Monday after nearly two years of sealing its borders, relying on high Covid-19 vaccination rates to live with the pandemic as infections decline.

"The wait is over," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a Sunday briefing at the Melbourne International Airport.

Australia's opening to tourists is the clearest example yet of the government's shift from a strict zero-Covid approach to living with the virus and vaccinating the public to minimise deaths and severe illness.

Most of the country's 2.7 million coronavirus infections have occurred since the Omicron variant emerged in late November. But with one of the world's highest vaccination rates - more than 94 per cent of people aged 16 and over are double-dosed - there have been just under 5,000 deaths, a fraction of the rates seen in many other developed countries.

• Dubai
• Abu Dhabi