Covid in UAE: Daily cases cross 3,000-mark

Total active cases stand at 38,849

By Web Desk

Published: Fri 14 Jan 2022, 1:55 PM

Last updated: Fri 14 Jan 2022, 2:00 PM

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Friday reported 3,068 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 1,226 recoveries and three deaths.

Total active cases stand at 38,849.

The new cases were detected through 424,861 additional tests.

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The total number of cases in UAE as on January 14 are 799,065, while total recoveries stand at 758,031. The death toll now stands at 2,185.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting for his political future on Thursday as his Conservatives descended into open internal warfare after he belatedly apologised for attending a party during a coronavirus lockdown.

The apparent breach of Covid restrictions has enraged the public, who were forced to abide by rules that prevented them from visiting sick and dying loved ones or attending funerals.

Most cabinet members rallied around Johnson after his mea culpa, but the backing from some such as Rishi Sunak, his powerful finance minister and potential successor, was distinctly lukewarm.

The prime minister himself went to ground on Thursday, cancelling a planned trip to northern England after a family member came down with Covid-19, in scrupulous adherence to his government’s rules.

Meanwhile, the eastern Chinese financial hub of Shanghai suspended some tourism activities on Friday as part of its efforts to head off a handful of sporadic new local transmissions, while it also faces an increase in Covid-19 infections from overseas.

Shanghai’s tourism and culture authority said travel agencies and online tourism companies must once again halt organising group tours between Shanghai and other provinces, regions or municipalities, after the city reported five new domestically transmitted infections on Thursday, all linked to a previous arrival from overseas.

The order, in line with a national guideline to cut tourist activities in provincial divisions where new infections have emerged, came less than a month after Shanghai lifted a previous suspension that had come into effect in November, according to local government statements and a report by a newspaper managed by China’s tourism authority.

The risk of the virus entering from overseas has increased in Shanghai, with new imported cases during the first 10 days of this month already exceeding December’s total, according to Reuters calculations. It is unclear how many were caused by the Omicron variant.