Coronavirus: UAE records 2,062 new cases and two deaths

Another 2,035 people recover from the disease

The UAE has one of the highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the world. Reuters

The UAE reported 2,062 new coronavirus cases and 2,035 recoveries on Friday.

Officials said two people died in the past 24 hours from complications.

The country has recorded 579,009 cases, 558,584 recoveries and 1,691 deaths since the first Covid-19 case was detected in the Emirates on January 29 last year.

Widespread testing and tracing, stringent safety measures and a high vaccination rate are credited for bringing down daily infection numbers.

An additional 233,038 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours.

Case numbers have dropped since reaching about 4,000 a day in January.

The vaccinated numbers in the UAE continued to rise, with 72,879 doses administered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 13.2 million. This represents a distribution rate of 133.74 doses per 100 people, the highest in the world.

Meanwhile, the UAE ambassador to Britain, Mansoor Abulhoul, said he was disappointed that the UK had kept the Emirates on its travel red list, despite its highly successful vaccination and testing campaigns.

Under England's traffic light system for international travel, only British citizens and residents are allowed into the UK and must enter hotel quarantine on arrival.

Figures show the UAE is second in the world after Gibraltar for vaccination rates and has donated 13.1 million doses since June.

Testing is also comprehensive in the UAE, which administers more than 20 daily Covid-19 tests for every 1,000 people, Our World in Data said.

“It is disappointing to see that the UAE has remained on the UK’s red travel list," Mr Abulhoul said.

"We have best-in-class health and safety infrastructure to protect visitors and residents."

The UAE announced the suspension of entry for travellers from Vietnam from Saturday.

The announcement was made on Thursday by the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority.

"Passengers coming from Vietnam on all flights of national and foreign carriers, as well as transit passengers coming from Vietnam" will be stopped, the authority said on Twitter, "with the exception of transit flights coming to the country and heading to Vietnam".

The suspension will begin at 11.59pm on Saturday.