Coronavirus: UAE reports 70 Covid-19 cases, 90 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Friday reported 70 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 90 recoveries and no deaths.

Over 99.9 million PCR tests have been conducted in the country so far.

The new cases were detected through 263,429 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on November 26 are 741,790, while total recoveries stand at 736,601. The death toll now stands at 2,145.

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Saudi Arabia has announced that it will lift a travel ban on expats from six countries including India and Pakistan that was introduced to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a tweet from the Saudi Press Agency, the Kingdom will let in direct passengers from India, Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt and Indonesia from December 1, 2021.

The directives will allow direct entry of fully vaccinated expatriates without the need to spend 14 days in transit outside their countries before entering the Kingdom, Arab News reported.

Meanwhile, a new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province, Health Minister Joe Phaahla announced Thursday.

The coronavirus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.

Subsequently, Australia on Friday said it was investigating the newly identified Covid-19 variant spreading in South Africa and warned it may close its borders to travellers from the African nation if risks from the new strain rise.

South African scientists are concerned the new variant could evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible as it has a “very unusual constellation” of mutations.

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