The number of new coronavirus cases reported on Thursday is the highest reported in 4 months. With this, the total number of infections in the country has risen to 76,911.

5 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the deadly virus to 398.

A total of 586 people have been recovered in the last 24 hours. Total number of recovery in the UAE now stands at 67,945.

62 per cent of the new infections have been reported among males, and 38% are of women she said. 12 per cent of these have arrived in the UAE in the past two weeks, even though they were tested negative for COVID-19 when they left their respective countries.

Social gatherings have been a big source of transmission of the disease, as 88 per cent of the new cases were resulted from weddings, work, funerals or other social gatherings, Farida said.

10% of the detected cases are also from testing done by schools for teachers and staff before school openings.

Reasons for increased numbers

One of the main reasons for the rise inthe number of daily cases according to Dr Farida is people commitment.

People are not wearing masks and not taking any protective measure, and indulging in gatherings at homes and restaurants.

Adding that another issue is failure of malls, shops and public facilities to stick to precautionary measures, such as the shops capacity, physical distancing, and mandatory wearing of masks, which contributed to the recent increase in the number of cases also.

Also many people are ignoring the symptoms when they appear, and they lack to test and continue to mix with others. Any mild symptom should be tested.

Dr Farida also said that the leniency and negligence of a number of private educational institutions in the country, and their failure to implement isolation measures and suspend studies for a period of 14 days after discovering cases in them, has also contributed to the numbers to go up.

Going Forward

The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority has begun to tighten supervision and inspection, and violators of the preventive measures will be held accountable, whether individuals, commercial centers or restaurants that are not committed.

Dr Farida implied that the recovery equation is very easy, as a community we commit to precaustions and guidelines infection rates will decrease.

Adding that for each person who gets in contact with a positive case, must apply quarantine protocols, and should not rely on the negative test results as an excuse to return to normal life. A 14 days of quarantine have to take place and anegative test at end of 14 days is a must.

The incubation period for the virus may last up to 14 days, and the negative test result on the 14th day of contact is the basis for the decision to leave the quarantine.

Every family wants to celebrate an upcoming event, to move away from holding big gatherings and restricting them to a very limited number of immediate family members and to take all preventive measures.

Goverment emphasize that the gradual opening of commercial institutes and schools and linking it to the increase in cases, the UAE government has put in place all the precautionary measures and requirements for the openings which is a must to be adhered to, whether by individuals or institutions.