The UAE reported 199 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, raising its tally to 899,441. A further 280 people overcame the virus, taking the number of recoveries to 883,160…reports Asian Lite News
No deaths have been recorded since March 7, with the toll standing at 2,302. The latest infections were identified as a result of an additional 88,359 PCR tests.
More than 156.5 million tests have been conducted to date under a mass screening strategy aimed at restricting the spread of the virus.
A comprehensive immunisation drive, in which more than 24.7 million vaccine doses have been administered since December 2020, has also been central to the UAE’s fight against the pandemic.
Daily infection rates have stayed below 300 since April 4, having been 10 times as high as recently as January.
Authorities in recent weeks eased several Covid-19 restrictions in response to the sustained low daily figures, such as lifting the requirement to wear masks outdoors and removing border controls on entry to Abu Dhabi by road from other emirates.
People are 1,000 times more likely to get Covid-19 from the airborne viral particles they breathe than from the surfaces they touch, according to a study.
The researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) in the US collected air and surface samples during an environmental surveillance programme from August 2020 until April 2021 on their campus.
“The risk of surface transmission was 1,000 times lower than airborne transmission,” said Chuanwu Xi, a professor at U-M’s School of Public Health.
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The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, another large study in the United States has found.
“We found that the risks of hospitalization and mortality were nearly identical between periods,” said four scientists who conducted the study based on records of 130,000 Covid-19 patients, referring to times in the past two years when different variants were dominant across the world.
Meanwhile, Pfizer executives said Tuesday they are confident of strong demand for the company’s Covid-19 antiviral treatment amid easing pandemic rules as the big drugmaker reported another round of strong earnings.
The US pharmaceutical giant, reporting surging first-quarter profits based on a big jump in revenues from its Covid-19 vaccine, said its Paxlovid treatment for the virus would be a valuable means for governments to limit the severity of outbreaks as they ease social distancing and masking rules.