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UAE confirms 3,962 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths amid UK travel ban

The UAE has ramped up its immunization campaign with the aim of vaccinating more than 50 percent of its roughly 9 million population before the end of March. (File/WAM)
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Updated 30 January 2021
Arab News
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UAE confirms 3,962 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths amid UK travel ban

  • UAE says 2,975 have recovered over the past 24 hours
  • Kuwait records 658 cases, Bahrain reports 468 cases
Updated 30 January 2021
Arab News

LONDON: The UAE has been informed of the United Kingdom’s decision to place travel restrictions on flights coming from the country, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
It also said the Emirates “affirms that it will continue to maintain its role as an important travel and logistics hub in accordance with the highest health and safety standards.”
Thousands of people have been left stranded or had their travel plans disrupted after the British government introduced a total ban on flights arriving from the UAE.
Hind Al-Otaiba, director of the Strategic Communication Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said, “the cornerstone of fighting the pandemic is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and the UAE scored the highest per capita test rate in the world.”
She also said: “in light of the new changes taking place in the world, the UAE has intensified its efforts to mitigate these risks.”
Al-Otaiba said the new measures include requiring incoming travelers to submit a negative PCR test, imposing restrictions on places of entertainment and gatherings, and implementing awareness campaigns continuously with high transparency.
“We are confident in our ambitious vaccination program, which ranks second in the world in the total number of vaccine doses distributed in relation to the number of individuals, and we have full confidence in the medical infrastructure and frontline workers.”
She also said that the UAE will extend visit visas, without any additional fees, for British travelers affected by this decision, in light of the current circumstances.
Meanwhile, the UAE on Friday recorded 3,962 new coronavirus cases and seven virus-related deaths.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 297,041, while the death toll rose to 826.
It also said that 2,975 people had recovered from the virus over the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 269,999.
MoHaP also said that more than 3 million doses of the vaccine have now been administered as part of the Emirate’s national inoculation campaign, which aims to immunize 50 percent of the population by April.
Health minister Abdul Rahman Al-Owais said the vaccine centers across the country witnessed increasing turnout, adding that the recovery phase is approaching.
Dubai Municipality announced it had intensified its inspection campaigns. It said two businesses were ordered to close, six were fined and warnings were issued to 37 for not complying with precautionary measures.

The authority also said it carried out half a million inspections since March 2020, during which 6,500 establishments were either fined, warned or ordered to close down for not adhering to the coronavirus precautionary measures.
Dubai Tourism also said it closed 23 establishments and fined 238 others during January, for not adhering to the precautionary measures.
Elsewhere, Kuwait reported 658 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total in the country to 164,108. The death toll remained 958 after no additional deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.

In Bahrain the death toll stands at 372 after no new deaths were reported. The number of confirmed cases in the country increased by 468.

 

Topics: UAE COVID-19 Coronavirus Dubai Municipality Dubai Tourism Hind Al-Otaiba Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry of Health and Prevention Kuwait Bahrain

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Israel agrees to reopen Rafah crossing only for Gaza pedestrians

Updated 1 min 49 sec ago
AFP
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Israel agrees to reopen Rafah crossing only for Gaza pedestrians

  • The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
Updated 1 min 49 sec ago
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would only allow pedestrians to travel through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as part of its “limited reopening” once it has recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed since Israeli forces took control of it during the war in the Palestinian territory.
Visiting US envoys had reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing during talks in Jerusalem over the weekend.
World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pushed for more humanitarian convoys to be able to access Gaza, which has been left devastated by more than two years of war and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food and other supplies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Israel had agreed to a reopening “for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism.”
The move would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” it said on X.
It remained unclear whether the reopening would allow medical patients to leave Gaza for treatment in Egypt or other countries.
The Israeli military said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” said Netanyahu’s office.
The announcement came after Gaza’s newly appointed administrator, Ali Shaath, said the crossing would open “in both directions” this week.
“For Palestinians in Gaza, Rafah is more than a gate, it is a lifeline and a symbol of opportunity,” Shaath said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
Israeli media had also reported that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had urged Netanyahu to reopen Rafah during their Jerusalem talks.
Before the war erupted in October 2023, Rafah had been the only gateway connecting Gazans to the outside world and enabling international humanitarian aid to enter the territory, home to 2.2 million people living under Israeli blockade.

Last hostage

A spokesman for Hamas’s Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said on Sunday that the group had “provided mediators with all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the captive’s body,” referring to Gvili.
Obeida added that “the enemy (Israel) is currently searching one of the sites based on information transmitted by the Al-Qassam Brigades.”
Except for Gvili, all of the 251 people taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel have since been returned, whether living or dead.
A non-commissioned officer in the Israeli police’s elite Yassam unit, Gvili was killed in action on the day of the attack and his body was taken to Gaza.
The first phase of the US-backed ceasefire deal had stipulated that Hamas hand over all the hostages in Gaza.
Gvili’s family has expressed strong opposition to launching the second phase of the plan, which includes reopening Rafah, before they have received his remains.
“First and foremost, Ran must be brought home,” his family said in a statement on Sunday.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The Israeli retaliation flattened much of Gaza, a territory that was already suffering severely from previous rounds of fighting and from an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007.
The two-year war between Israel and Hamas has left at least 71,657 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza rafah

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