Abu Dhabi 'more than prepared' for Covid-19 challenge, says top health official

Dr Jamal Al Kaabi says patient capacity has been greatly increased, but people should have vaccine and follow safety measures

Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, undersecretary of the Department of Health, says Abu Dhabi has a greater understanding of the threat posed by Covid-19. Photo: Jamal Al Kaabi / Twitter

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A senior Abu Dhabi health official says the capital is “more than prepared” to win the fight against Covid-19 amid a sharp rise in infection rates.

Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, undersecretary of the Department of Health, said the emirate had greatly bolstered its patient capacity to meet the challenges posed by the virus.

He said Abu Dhabi now has a greater understanding of the threat it poses to public health.

He said the focus was on ensuring hospital beds were available to treat Covid-19 patients.

“We are fully prepared. While we were previously learning about the nature of the virus, we've come a long way and today we have a greater understanding of its tactics and changing mutations. We are more than prepared,” Dr Al Kaabi told The National.

“In 2020, it was all about striking fast. Right now, the virus is spreading really fast and less severe. Previously, it did not spread as fast but was more severe.”

Abu Dhabi has trebled its number of hospital beds and increased those in intensive care units by 300 per cent during the pandemic and has six field hospitals in place to ease the strain on health services.

The emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant has caused a worldwide surge in infections.

The UAE's Covid-19 new case numbers have remained above 2,500 every day this year, having fallen to below 50 in early December.

However, Dr Al Kaabi said that the majority of the latest cases were asymptomatic.

He said the capital was continuing to review its approach to tackling the pandemic, with the aim of ensuring those most at risk receive the support they need.

“Right now, there is a clinical guideline being approved by the committee which is responsible for reviewing all the latest studies in regards to Covid,” he said.

The official said patients in Abu Dhabi were divided into three groups to determine care needs.

The majority make up those with no symptoms, who do not require treatment.

“The second category is the patient that has a few risk factors such as being above 50 or having a few symptoms and/or a chronic illness,” Dr Al Kaabi said.

These patients are given antiviral treatments after thorough medical assessment.

The third high risk group are those with multiple risk factors aged above 50 who might require admission.

They are treated with the antiviral drug Sotrovimab, used to help to save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.

Learning to live with Covid-19

The UAE was the first country in the world to both license and enable immediate patient use of the drug in May.

A study in July found it was 100 per cent successful in preventing deaths and 99 per cent effective in stopping admissions to intensive care.

Dr Al Kaabi said Covid-19 may be a disease that society would need to “learn to live with”, making it all the more important for people to protect their own health by following safety measures.

“We kept building the capability over the last two years not only for Covid but for everything else. I think the lessons learnt from the last two years actually served to prepare us for the future,” he said.

“We are a country that did not and will not close down. I think we learnt that life needs to continue. No matter what, this is something that we need to live with. It's a matter of following the guidelines.”

He underlined the importance of people continuing to wear face masks and abide by social distancing rules to shield themselves and others from the transmission of the virus.

“This is a must. The first protection is not the vaccine. The first line of protection is the mask itself. You need to wear the mask and you need to take care of your elderly and maintain social distancing whether you are at home or while attending events.

“And we saw how our country actually hosted a lot of international events with great success.”

Testing and vaccination remain key

Dr Al Kaabi said Abu Dhabi's support of the country's robust testing and vaccination campaigns also remained crucial to overcoming the pandemic.

He said the capital had the ability to carry out 500,000 PCR tests every day, after 27 testing and vaccination centres were established.

“This is something we realised from the beginning, that the vaccine was the only hope to minimise the effect of this virus and I think we were really fast to achieve the goal of giving the community booster shots,” he said.

He said those who were vaccinated presented with milder symptoms if infected than those who remained unvaccinated.

The UAE has been a global leader in efforts to immunise the public.

It approved the Sinopharm vaccine for public use in December, 2020, following successful Phase 3 clinical trials in Abu Dhabi.

More than 23 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered since then – the majority Sinopharm and Pfizer BioNTech – with more than 93 per cent of the population now fully vaccinated.

Authorities are urging the public to receive a vaccine booster to further strengthen their protection against the virus.

“I'm happy with the uptake of vaccination here, but we still need to have a six-month plan for the supportive dose to maintain the unity of our community,” Dr Al Kaabi said.