Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

Dubai: Thirteen (13) new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Saturday (March 21, 2020) in the UAE, bringing the total number of cases to 153, according to the Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Seven (7) new patients have also recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in the country to 38 as of Saturday.

Nationalities

The new cases include four Bangladeshis, three Britons, a Pakistani, a Portuguese, a Polish and an American.

All the new cases of COVID-19 infected persons are in stable condition, said Dr. Farida Al Hosani, the ministry’s official spokesperson for the health sector, during a press briefing held on Saturday in the capital.

Dr Al Hosani called on members of the public to stay indoors and avoid crowded places and not to leave home unless necessary.

“It is regrettable to see video clips of some people going to beaches, shopping centers and parks. You must take all necessary precautionary measures and stay at home. Every person should consider himself infected. You should leave a safe distance of at least one meter between you and the closest person to you,” she added.

Dr Al Hosani gave the following recommendations:

We recommend delaying non-emergency dental procedures, or when suffering from respiratory symptoms such as coughing.

We are working on a mechanism to maintain domestic isolation.

New legal offences might be announced if the public does not comply with isolation.

We urge citizens and residents to stay away from mass transportation.

Visits to restaurants and markets should be reduced to avoid infection.

Unified mechanism for testing drugs

She stressed that the UAE has a unified mechanism to follow up on all medicines claimed to be tested and achieved promising results in the treatment of novel coronavirus.

Many of these drugs are available in the country and used in the treatment of cases in isolation, including malaria and AIDS drugs.