Author: News Desk

The UAE on Tuesday sent an aid plane containing 14 metric tonnes of medical and food supplies to Pakistan. The aid will assist approximately 7,000 medical professionals to contain the virus. The UAE delivered the first batch of critical medical supplies to Pakistan on April 2. On April 5, the second batch of 11 metric tonnes of medical supplies given by the UAE arrived in Islamabad. To date, the UAE has given more than 320 metric tons of aid to over 30 countries, supporting nearly 320,000 medical professionals in the process.

British Airways is on course to make up to 12,000 workers redundant following a collapse in global travel due to the coronavirus crisis. The airline’s parent company IAG said a restructuring and redundancy programme, that would primarily affect BA, was being put to trade unions. It reflected, the company said, group operating losses of €535m during the first quarter of the year – most of which were linked to BA. IAG said it expected the situation to deteriorate in the current second quarter – with disruption to travel demand expected to last several years.

Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, SEHA, has tested around 20,000 employees of malls and shops across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This was done in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, ADDED, who issued a circular to reopen shopping malls in adherence to strict guidelines for the health and safety of employees, under the instruction of the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, NCEMA. Mohammed Hawas Al Sadid, CEO of Ambulatory Healthcare Services at SEHA, said, “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been working closely with the UAE’s leadership and other government entities to minimise…

Over 1 billion people could become infected with the coronavirus worldwide unless vulnerable countries are given urgent help, International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said financial and humanitarian aid were needed to help slow the global spread of the virus. IRC said, “fragile countries” such as Afghanistan and Syria needed “urgent funding” to avoid a major outbreak. There have been more than 3m confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide with more than 200,000 deaths, in the US according to Johns Hopkins University. The IRC’s report, which is based on models and data from the World Health Organization…

WhatsApp doubles its group call limit from four to eight. The new group call update is now rolling out in India. The feature will be available globally. Last week Facebook announced some new features for all its platforms including Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Of late, the social media giant has been adding some interesting new features to WhatsApp such as limit frequently forwarded messages, coronavirus helpline support and many more to deliver an improved experience to the users. The latest addition to the list is the extended group video and voice call limit. With this update, WhatsApp is competing with…

Saudi Arabia reported 1,266 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 20,077. Meanwhile, 253 recoveries were announced today, with total recoveries in Saudi Arabia at 2,784. There are 118 cases in intensive care. The ministry confirmed the death of 8 people, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 152. Most of the new cases are reported in Makkah (327), Madinah (273), Jeddah (262) and Riyadh (171).

“All precautions will continue and will intensify in the coming period of time to ensure the success of the national plan to combat COVID-19. The active cases stand at 1,556 most of them are stable with no symptoms while 16 to 18 cases have experienced symptoms. This shows the efforts of Bahrain in identifying cases in the early stage so that the symptoms can be avoided. Over 1,246 cases have recovered and been discharged leaving quarantine and we will follow up with them up to 4 weeks.” Dr. Jameela Al Salman, Consultant of Infectious and Internal Diseases at Salmaniya Medical…

Since the first 100 cases were recorded, Bahrain has proven its unique treatment to tackle the Coronavirus, compared to other countries. Bahrain’s results in the case registration index since the first 100 existing cases were recorded much better than other countries that showed a clear escalation in the number of existing cases, which confirms that Bahrain is moving towards flattening the curve of the virus. In Bahrain, we have the capacity for tests, the professional and medical team in place to combat the virus, capacity for isolation treatment and quarantine. The precautionary measures have proved its success in Bahrain. I…

“The laboratory test are among the assessment criteria for a country. WHO has added a new criteria, where if there is one positive case, there has to be nine negative cases. The standard added by the World Health Organization clarifies the efforts made by countries in the field of examination, especially if the percentage is less than 9%. Bahrain achieved a 2% rate on this standard, which reflects the Kingdom’s mockery of tackling the virus”, said Dr. Waleed Khalifa Al Manea, Undersecretary Ministry of Health. The citizens who were transferred to the house quarantine are the returning citizens from abroad who are referred…

The number of confirmed cases among expatriate workers reached 1909 as of April 26, of which 95.5% are working under a legal framework “Only 1.7% of confirmed cases of migrant workers are holders of flexible work permits. The legal employment rate of existing cases is 89%, while the violation rate of employment is 9%, and the percentage of expatriates on a visitor visa is 2%. Business owners have agreed to provide buildings for the precautionary quarantine of their workers”, said Mr. Ausamah Al-Absi, CEO of the Labor Market Regulatory Authority. 42% of the buildings designated for precautionary quarantine for expatriate workers…