Dubai - The new cases were detected through 232,901 additional tests.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Sunday reported 1,992 new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 2,169 recoveries and 7 deaths.
The new cases were detected through 232,901 additional tests. The total number of cases in UAE as on March 14 are 426,397 while total recoveries stand at 405,647. The death toll rises to 1,395.
The UAE has conducted over 33.8 million tests till date as part of the country's massive screening programmes to combat the spread.
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Since the advent of the pandemic, mass testing has been widely adopted in the UAE as a critical public health strategy to detect and prevent infections. Clinical trials are current underway in Dubai to assess the accuracy of Covid-19 breath analysers that can detect the presence of the virus within seconds rather than hours. The trials are being conducted for 2,500 patients. The breath test is non-invasive and is unlikely to cause any discomfort, as the person is only required to breathe out generally into the device.
It was also announced yesterday that the private hospitals can resume elective surgeries and other wellbeing treatments that were previously suspended to protect public health, following the outbreak of Covid-19. These include resumption of procedures like cosmetic surgery or dental procedures that can be done under local anesthesia, starting today. Physiotherapy and Kairo practices can also be resumed. Meanwhile, all outpatient visits and scheduled surgeries for urgent medical conditions were already allowed earlier.
The resumption of these facilities comes after the vaccination drive in the country has picked up momentum with the number of Covid-19 recovery cases on the rise.
Meanwhile, new antibody treatments have shown promise in keeping high-risk Covid-19 patients out of the hospital, doctors in the UAE have said. Medics pointed out that while a vaccine (active immunity) prepares the immune system to battle future infections, an antibody (passive immunity) injected into a patient can immediately treat an existing SARS-CoV-2 infection. It has shown to reduce hospitalisation, emergency visits and disease progression in clinical trials.