Dr. Omar Abdulrahman Al Hammadi, Official Spokesman of the UAE Government, revealed statistics that reflect the health situation in the country while Dr. Farida Al Hosani, Official Spokesperson of the Health Sector, highlighted the progress in vaccine production, its objectives and the differences between various vaccines.
This came during the media briefing held periodically by the UAE Government to highlight the developments and efforts aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, a nine percent increase in recoveries was reported from 14th to 20th October, 2020, compared to the previous week, with total recoveries amounting to 10,306 cases.
At the start of the briefing, Dr. Al Hammadi announced that relevant health establishments performed 769,096 tests around the country during the reporting period, revealing an increase of 15 percent in confirmed cases compared to the previous week, amounting to 8,986.
Al Hammadi added that the information points out that the ratio of positive cases compared to total tests remains at 1 per cent, which is the same as last week’s figure, noting that it is below the ratio in the EU of 7.6 per cent, in the Middle East and Africa of 6.5 percent, and in OECD countries of 6.4 per cent.
He further added that there were 22 deaths during this period, with the rate being 0.4 percent, which is less than the EU’s death rate of 3.8 per cent, the Middle East and North Africa’s rate of 2.4 per cent, and the OECD’s rate of 3.5 per cent.
Dr. Al Hosani stressed that the recent increase in infections is in line with an increase witnessed by the entire world, which is a global pattern resulting from the gradual return to normalcy.
She also highlighted the necessity for individuals and institutions to adhere to the precautionary measures announced by the UAE Government.
She added that quarantining those exposed to positive cases will help reduce the spread of the virus, and urged members of the community to adopt healthy habits and help facilitate procedures aimed at identifying those exposed to positive coronavirus cases.
The UAE is keen to provide the urgent COVID-19 vaccine to front-liners, who are the most exposed to the virus given the nature of their work, Al Hosani further added while pointing out that the international community is trying to accelerate the vaccine production process and complete clinical trials, which also applies to the country’s health sector.
There are many types of vaccines, some of which are non-living particles of the virus, and others are weak copies while some are genetically modified proteins that resemble the proteins in the real virus, she explained, noting that the objective of all these vaccines is to induce the immune system to create memory cells and stimulate them to defeat the virus when it enters the human body.
She also affirmed that vaccine production will aim to prevent the occurrence of new infections while the second aim is to prevent the occurrence of serious complications, and the third is to limit the capacity of the virus to spread from an infected person to another.
Al Hosani thanked the volunteers who participated in the clinical trials and appreciated the significant efforts of scientists, doctors, researchers and volunteers to produce a vaccine that will protect everyone from the virus.