Coronavirus: UAE reports 288 new cases

Another 770 people beat the virus in the 24-hour reporting period

NMC Royal Hospital's round-the-clock drive-through testing centre in Sharjah. All photos: NMC Healthcare

Cars queue up at the testing centre.

The drive-through centre offers a convenient way for people to be tested.

Healthcare workers say results are usually available within 24 hours and the in-car wait time before testing is about 15 minutes on average.

The UAE reported 288 new cases of Covid-19 and 770 recoveries on Wednesday.

The daily caseload pushed the total number of infections to 890,987 while overall recoveries reached 866,872.

No deaths have been reported since March 7 and the overall toll is 2,302.

Officials said the latest cases were identified from 308,848 PCR tests.

The UAE has carried out more than 147 million tests since the pandemic began.

The number of active cases in the country dropped to 21,813.

Mass Covid-19 screening and an extensive vaccination campaign have helped the UAE to bring down infection rates and limit the spread of the virus.

Nearly 24.5 million vaccine doses have been administered and 97.1 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.