Coronavirus: UAE reports 312 Covid-19 cases, 330 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Sunday reported 312 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 330 recoveries and no deaths.

Pfizer Inc expects to roughly quadruple the price of its Covid-19 vaccine to about $110 to $130 per dose after the United States government's current purchase program expires, Pfizer executive Angela Lukin said on Thursday.

Lukin said she expects the vaccine - currently provided for free to all by the government - will be made available at no cost to people who have private insurance or government paid insurance.

Reuters earlier on Thursday reported that Wall Street was expecting such price hikes due to weak demand for Covid vaccines, which meant vaccine makers would need to hike prices to meet revenue forecasts for 2023 and beyond.

Meanwhile, China's capital, Beijing, has dialled up measures to stop Covid-19, such as strengthening public checks, and locking down some residential compounds after a quadrupling of its case load in recent weeks, just as a key Communist Party congress entered full swing.

On Thursday, the city of 21 million people reported 18 new locally transmitted cases for the previous day, bringing the tally for the past 10 days to 197. That is four times more than the 49 infections detected in the previous 10-day period.

While the number of cases is very small compared with other countries, China's zero-Covid policy has compelled the capital to ratchet up preventive measures, particularly with the Communist Party holding its once-every-five-years congress this week.

• Abu Dhabi
• Dubai