Coronavirus: UAE reports 104 Covid-19 cases, 142 recoveries, no deaths

Dubai - The new cases were detected through 258,717 additional tests.

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Monday reported 104 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 142 recoveries and no deaths.

The new cases were detected through 258,717 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on October 18 are 738,690 while total recoveries stand at 732,438. The death toll now stands at 2,120.

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The UAE is winning its battle against the pandemic. Covid-19 cases in the country have dipped below 100 for the first time in 565 days, the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) announced Sunday.

Of the 317,254 PCR tests conducted in the 24 hours that led to October 17, only 99 had the virus with a positivity rate of 0.031 per cent. The UAE registered infections below the 100-mark on March 31, 2020, when 52 cases were reported.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, had recently said that the worst of the Covid crisis is over.

“The UAE worked as one team during the pandemic, making the country among the best globally in the fight against Covid-19,” he had tweeted in August after chairing a UAE Cabinet meeting.

On the other hand, while the US Food and Drug Administration waits for outside experts to review Merck’s new pill to treat Covid-19 next month, countries around the world are rushing to place their orders for the antiviral drug called Molnupiravir.

If a decision is taken and regulators approve the drug, not only will the capsule become the first oral antiviral treatment against Covid, it’ll also be a succour for those unable to get vaccinated as it will reduce hospitalisation by at least 50 per cent, according to reports.

A number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region are already in talks to procure the drug, according to a CNN report.

The Singapore health ministry has signed a purchase agreement for molnupiravir, while the European Medicines Agency is considering a rolling review of the drug.

Three IV antibody drugs have been authorised since last year to cut Covid-19 hospitalisation and death, but they are expensive, hard to produce and require specialty equipment and health professionals to deliver. If authorised, molnupiravir, would be the first that patients could take at home to ease symptoms and speed recovery.

• Dubai