No coronavirus cases in UAE: Health minister

AbdulRahman bin Mohammed Al Owais, the UAE Minister of Health, has stressed that no case of coronavirus infection was found in the UAE, and that all necessary precautions have been taken to protect the country from the disease.
Coronavirus: 56 dead in China, more than 2,000 infected

The minister made the statement during a meeting of the National Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management team, which he chaired. Concerned officials from several authorities attended the meeting, which discussed in detail the steps taken to ensure that the UAE remained free from the attack of the virus and the resultant respiratory illness.

The meeting also stressed the importance of full preparedness on the part of all the concerned entities to deal with any eventuality concerning the newly identified coronavirus.

The UAE has raised the level of alertness in the country in order to deal with any development proactively and effectively at the border crossings, following a close assessment of the domestic and external situation, as well as in the wake of the preventive steps taken by China.

The incidence of the disease in a few other countries as per reports from the World Health Organisation was also taken into account while raising the level of alertness. The public sector and private sector health entities in the country have been sufficiently briefed on the ways to anticipate and preempt the disease as well as to prevent it from spreading in case of any incidence.

Al Owais has emphasised on the need to ascertain news reports about the disease from reliable and official sources and avoid giving heed to rumours.

He also stressed the need for disseminating the guidelines to the public in order for them to follow them for their own protection. The guidelines will be disseminated through official social media channels and the national media with a view to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all the UAE nationals and residents.
In a separate statement, the Abu Dhabi public health centre denied a rumour that a patient in Abu Dhabi had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, also known as 2019 nCoV, and added that the case pertains to a previous type of coronavirus, which is not dangerous and that the patient is currently being treated.