Coronavirus: UAE records 198 new cases

Another 279 people recovered over a 24-hour period

Billboards along Sheikh Zayed Road thanking the Covid vaccine volunteers for the Phase 3 trials conducted in the UAE. Antonie Robertson / The National

A man receives a dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Dubai. Reuters

People queue for the vaccine near DIFC in Dubai. AFP

The DPI screening centre on the border between Dubai and Abu Dhabi is quick and results are out in a matter of minutes. Antonie Robertson / The National

A woman receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at Zabeel Health Centre in Dubai. EPA

Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara partnered with Tamouh Health Care to provide on-site Sinopharm Vaccination for all residents of the UAE free of charge in February. Pawan Singh / The National

UAE residents receive their vaccine free of charge in February. Pawan Singh / The National

The UAE reported 198 new coronavirus cases and 279 recoveries on Friday.

Officials said no one died in the past 24 hours from complications.

No deaths have been recorded since March 7, with the toll standing at 2,302.

The country has recorded 899,835 cases, 883,740 recoveries since the first Covid-19 case was detected in the Emirates on January 29, 2020.

Widespread testing and tracing, stringent safety measures and a high vaccination rate have been credited for bringing down daily infections.

An additional 102,626 tests were conducted over the 24-hour period, bringing the total number carried out since the beginning of the outbreak to more than 156 million.

Meanwhile, a new study, which involved almost a million adults in the UK, is being presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht.

It showed that women were more likely than men to gain weight during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Experts also found that both sexes under the age of 45 were more likely to put on the pounds than those in other age groups.

However, study found that the vast majority of people stayed around the same weight or did not move into another body mass index (BMI) category.