A COVID-19 drive thru test centre in Dubai Image Credit: Supplied

Abu Dhabi: UAE has conducted over 1,122,000 tests in hospitals and health centres, WAM reported, and has so far established 14 drive-through testing centres. This is in addition to a mobile testing service for elderly and people of determination for home tests.

The rate of testing in the UAE is one of the highest in the world at more than 107,000 per one million of the population. Iceland leads the rate at just over 135,000 tests per 1 million of the total population. While effective testing and contact tracing can help quickly get care to confirmed cases, it can also help governments and health organisations understand the rates of transmission and extent of spread.

The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, SEHA, operates 14 drive-through testing centres around the country. Citizens and residents can also get tested at many hospitals and specialist health centres.

The launch of the largest laboratory in the world outside China, which will monitor and analyse the occurrence of coronavirus in Abu Dhabi will help raise the number and efficiency of testing around the country. The laboratory, which was constructed in just 14 days, has world-class diagnostic capacities that will help facilitate response to and containment of COVID-19.

Getting a test done in UAE

Health authorities are giving priority to testing the people who:

• are showing COVID-19 symptoms (dry cough, fever or shortness of breath).

• have had close contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case, or had travel history within a certain timeframe that could explain infection

• are in the particularly vulnerable and high-risk groups, which include pregnant women, people above the age of 65, or those with comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or those with a compromised immune system such as cancer, a history of taking immunosuppressants or severe acute respiratory illness.

You can also get a test done without these parameters but in that case your insurance will not cover the cost of testing. In many centres, symptomatic people can get tested for Dh370 (payable if they don't satisfy the priority conditions of testing) while asymptomatic people can get tested for Dh425.