Coronavirus: UAE reports 318 Covid-19 cases, 1,170 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Sunday reported 318 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,170 recoveries and no deaths.

Total active cases stand at 31,779.

The new cases were detected through 341,261 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on March 13 are 885,407, while total recoveries stand at 851,326. The death toll now stands at 2,302.

Over 142.1 million PCR tests have been conducted across the country to date.

China instituted new Covid-19 restrictions Saturday that included urging the public not to leave Beijing and closing schools in Shanghai as the leader of Hong Kong warned that its coronavirus outbreak has yet to reach its peak.

In Beijing, where five new cases were reported, part of the Yosemite housing complex in the northeastern district of Shunyi was locked down after an infection was found there. Residents were ordered to undergo testing.

The government said the infected person was a close contact of an earlier case in the capital.

“Please do not leave Beijing unless necessary,” a spokesman for the capital’s Communist Party committee, Xu Hejian, was cited by state TV as saying.

Kenya lifted its remaining Covid-19 restrictions on Friday, including a ban on large indoor gatherings such as religious services and a requirement to present a negative Covid-19 test for arriving air passengers.

Though Kenyans should continue heeding public health measures such as handwashing and social distancing, face masks are no longer mandatory in public and all quarantine measures for confirmed Covid-19 cases are halted with immediate effect, Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe told a news conference.

For the past month the East African country's Covid-19 test positivity rate has remained below 1 per cent, he added, attributing this to the rising number of Kenyans opting to get vaccinated.

In November, the government announced that proof of vaccination would be required by December 21 to access schools, transport, state offices, hotels, bars, restaurants, national parks and wildlife reserves. But a court blocked the move amid uncertainty over who would police it or what to do about people unable to access vaccines. The minister did not mention the order in his remarks on Friday.

• Dubai
• Abu Dhabi