Coronavirus: UAE reports 72 new cases from 264,815 tests

Residents receive Covid-19 vaccinations at the Seha Drive-Through Service Centre at the Corniche Abu Dhabi.

A nurse gives a vaccine shot at Prime Hospital in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

UAE authorities have urged the public to book their Covid-19 booster shot after they have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

An Abu Dhabi private education staff member has her blood pressure checked before receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

Hundreds of pupils from Delhi Private School Dubai queue up with their parents to get inoculated. Courtesy: Delhi Private School Dubai

A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination site inside the parking garage of the Guru Nanak Darbar Sikh Temple in Dubai

Shenaz Abdul Salam, 13 gets vaccinated at the Seha Covid-19 Drive-Through Service Centre at the Corniche in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE reported 72 new coronavirus cases and 92 recoveries on Friday.

Health officials said the latest cases were identified from 264,815 tests.

No deaths were reported for the fourth consecutive day.

The Emirates has recorded 740,801 infections, 735,362 recoveries and 2,142 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Daily cases have remained below 100 in the past few weeks – 98.86 per cent of the country's population have received a dose of the vaccine, while 88.78 per cent are fully vaccinated.

To date, the UAE has administered more than 21.5 million vaccine doses since December last year when the country embarked on a nationwide inoculation campaign.

More than 96 million tests have been conducted since the outbreak began at the end of January 2020, as part of the Emirates' testing and tracing programme.

A "second generation" of Covid-19 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials, raising hope that nasal sprays and oral medicine could be used alongside injections to tackle the disease.

The World Health Organisation's chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said the new types of vaccine could have advantages over the present crop because they would be easier to deliver than injections and could even be self-administered.

More than 50 per cent of the world's population has received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine so far.