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  • UAE confirms 3,382 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths


UAE confirms 3,382 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention said the total number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began had reached 242,969, while the death toll rose to 726. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 15 January 2021
Arab News
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UAE confirms 3,382 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

  • UAE says 2,671 have recovered over the past 24 hours
  • Kuwait records 560 cases, Oman reports 178 cases and 1 death
Updated 15 January 2021
Arab News

DUBAI: The UAE on Thursday recorded 3,382 new COVID-19 cases, a record daily high for the third consecutive day, and three deaths related to the virus.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 242,969, while the death toll rose to 726.
Some 2,671 people had recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 215,820.
MoHAP released a video informing the public who has priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, the procedures to get the vaccine, and the possible symptoms after vaccination.

During daily inspection tours, Dubai Economy issued fines to eight shops and a warning to another for failing to adhere to anti-COVID-19 measures.
Dubai Municipality closed two shisha cafes for not adhering to the precautionary measures and issued warnings to 37 establishments, while Dubai Tourism closed down one venue and issued three fines and one warning to other non-compliant venues.

The citizens affairs bureau in Ajman launched a campaign to provide vaccinations to the elderly and those with chronic illnesses in their homes.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Majid Al-Nuaimi, the bureau’s director-general, said the service would be provided by mobile medical teams.
The emirate of Sharjah has turned its Expo Center into a vaccination center “as a part of the (health) ministry’s strategy to increase the capacity and add new facilities to the vaccination campaign,” the ministry said.

The health and education ministries said they also set up vaccination centers on campuses and a teacher training institute for two days in Ajman and Fujairah where they vaccinated nearly 3,000 students, teachers and staff.


Meanwhile, a 97 year-old Emirati citizen received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in Abu Dhabi.
Nakhira Obaid Saeed Al-Dhaheri decided to take the vaccination like the rest of his family, who encouraged him to do so in support of the efforts of the Abu Dhabi government, his son said.
“From my experience with my father, I want to encourage all members of society, especially senior citizens and residents, to take the COVID-19 vaccination to protect them, and to take information from the official authorities and not to heed to rumors,” he told WAM news agency.
Elsewhere, Kuwait reported 560 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 156,434. The death toll remained 946 after no coronavirus-related deaths were reported in the previous 24 hours.

Oman’s health ministry confirmed 178 new cases and one death, bringing the totals to 131,264 and 1,509, respectively.

In Bahrain, no deaths was reported, keeping the death toll to 356, while 341 new infected cases were confirmed.

Topics: UAE Coronavirus COVID-19 Ministry of Health and Prevention Dubai Municipality dubai economy Dubai Tourism ajman Sharjah Fujairah Kuwait Oman Bahrain

Battered by Gaza war, Israel’s tech sector in recovery mode

Updated 21 February 2026
AFP
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Battered by Gaza war, Israel’s tech sector in recovery mode

  • “High-tech companies had to overcome massive staffing cuts, because 15 to 20 percent of employees, and sometimes more, were called up” to the front as reservists, IIA director Dror Bin told
Updated 21 February 2026
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel’s vital tech sector, dragged down by the war in Gaza, is showing early signs of recovery, buoyed by a surge in defense innovation and fresh investment momentum.
Cutting-edge technologies represent 17 percent of the country’s GDP, 11.5 percent of jobs and 57 percent of exports, according to the latest available data from the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), published in September 2025.
But like the rest of the economy, the sector was not spared the knock-on effects of the war, which began in October 2023 and led to staffing shortages and skittishness from would-be backers.
Now, with a ceasefire largely holding in Gaza since October, Israel’s appeal is gradually returning, as illustrated in mid-December, when US chip giant Nvidia announced it would create a massive research and development center in the north that could host up to 10,000 employees.
“Investors are coming to Israel nonstop,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.
After the war, the recovery can’t come soon enough.
“High-tech companies had to overcome massive staffing cuts, because 15 to 20 percent of employees, and sometimes more, were called up” to the front as reservists, IIA director Dror Bin told AFP.
To make matters worse, in late 2023 and 2024, “air traffic, a crucial element of this globalized sector, was suspended, and foreign investors froze everything while waiting to see what would happen,” he added.
The war also sparked a brain drain in Israel.
Between October 2023 and July 2024, about 8,300 employees in advanced technologies left the country for a year or more, according to an IIA report published in April 2025.
The figure represents around 2.1 percent of the sector’s workforce.
The report did not specify how many employees left Israel to work for foreign companies versus Israeli firms based abroad, or how many have since returned to Israel.

- Rise in defense startups -

In 2023, the tech sector far outpaced GDP growth, increasing by 13.7 percent compared to 1.8 percent for GDP.
But the sector’s output stagnated in 2024 and 2025, according to IIA figures.
Industry professionals now believe the industry is turning a corner.
Israeli high-tech companies raised $15.6 billion in private funding in 2025, up from $12.2 billion in 2024, according to preliminary figures published in December by Startup Nation Central (SNC), a non-profit organization that promotes Israeli innovation.
Deep tech — innovation based on major scientific or engineering advances such as artificial intelligence, biotech and quantum computing — returned in 2025 to its pre-2021 levels, according to the IIA.
The year 2021 is considered a historic peak for Israeli tech.
The past two years have also seen a surge in Israeli defense technologies, with the military engaged on several fronts from Lebanon and Syria to Iran, Yemen, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Between July 2024 and April 2025, the number of startups in the defense sector nearly doubled, from 160 to 312, according to SNC.
Of the more than 300 emerging companies collaborating with the research and development department of Israel’s defense ministry, “over 130 joined our operations during the war,” Director General Amir Baram said in December.
Until then, the ministry had primarily sourced from Israel’s large defense firms, said Menahem Landau, head of Caveret Ventures, a defense tech investment company.
But he said the war pushed the ministry “to accept products that were not necessarily fully finished and tested, coming from startups.”
“Defense-related technologies have replaced cybersecurity as the most in-demand high-tech sector,” the reserve lieutenant colonel explained.
“Not only in Israel but worldwide, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine and tensions with China.”
 

 

Topics: Palestine Gaza West Bank

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