Coronavirus: UAE reports 216 new cases

People waiting for their turn to get the Covid-19 vaccine at the Ajman Society of Social and Cultural Development. All photos: Pawan Singh / The National

People arrive at the vaccination centre to receive shots of either Sinopharm or Pfizer-BioNTech.

Rashid Al Shamsi after getting his Covid-19 vaccine shot at the centre.

People in Ajman have responded to government calls to support the nationwide vaccination drive.

A man receives the Covid-19 vaccine at the Ajman Society of Social & Cultural Development centre.

Numbers of Emiratis getting vaccinated at the Ajman centre have increased significantly in recent months.

Muna Saqr Al Matrooshi, general director of Ajman Society of Social and Cultural Development, has welcomed the rise in Emiratis being vaccinated at the centre.

The UAE recorded 216 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the overall tally of infections to 894,286.

Another 509 people overcame the virus and total recoveries climbed to 875,116.

No deaths have been reported since March 7 and the toll remained at 2,302.

The latest daily infections were detected after carrying out 296,483 PCR tests. More than 151 million tests have been conducted to date.

Cases have mostly remained below the 300-mark since the beginning of this month. It touched 300 on April 4 and fell to a low of 143 on April 7.

The UAE's aggressive mass testing strategy and nationwide vaccination campaign have helped in fighting the pandemic.

About 97.3 per cent of the eligible population have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with authorities encouraging the public to take a third "booster" dose.

On Monday, Sarah Al Amiri, the UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technology, told the UN Security Council that the coronavirus pandemic was “far from over” and called for faster action in getting vaccines to poor and war-torn countries.

Ms Al Amiri said that only about a tenth of people in strife-ridden nations had received Covid-19 vaccines, and in some hotspots less than 1 per cent of the population had been inoculated.

“New waves, coupled with new variants, are evidence that no one is safe until everyone is safe,” she said at talks co-hosted by the UAE, Britain and France.

The UN’s World Health Organisation on Monday warned that 20 mostly African countries have still not vaccinated even 10 per cent of their population against Covid-19.