Sharjah schools to continue online learning for students
The Local Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management team in Sharjah has decided 100 per cent distance learning for all public and private schools in the emirate until the end of Spring Semester.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the Sharjah Private Education Authority, the team decided to continue the distance learning system at 100 percent for students in schools, and pupils in public and private nurseries in the emirate, until the end of the spring semester.
The local team explained that the decision comes as a continuation of the wise leadership’s keenness to preserve the safety and health of students and the provision of appropriate alternatives for continuing learning remotely, to ensure comprehensive health security.
Meanwhile, the local team, through the Executive Commitee for Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management, continued its multilingual awareness campaign via drones to educate the community on the need to adhere to the preventive measures and procedures to limit the spread of the emerging COVID-19, to reach the highest possible number of community members.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention ( MoHAP) announced on Thursday that it conducted 195,866 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 3,025 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also announced 18 deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
MOHAP also noted that an additional 4,678 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 375,059.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention also announced that 84,573 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the past 24 hours.
The total number of doses provided up to Thursday stands at 5,846,036 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 59.11 doses per 100 people.
Laboratories in Abu Dhabi are processing 5,000 -10,000 imported PCR samples a day, as part of the Emirate’s contribution to global efforts to combat COVID-19.
The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi said on Thursday that the results of those tests are provided within 24 hours of being received from multiple countries.
The Health Department added that the Emirate has allocated “world-class laboratories” to test the samples with the support of Etihad Airways, provider of diagnostic testing Unilabs, and the logistics company Agility.
Emirates and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will position Dubai as one of the first cities in the world to implement digital verification of traveller medical records related to COVID-19 testing and vaccination.
The MOU was signed by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman and Chief Executive, and Awadh Al Ketbi, Director-general of Dubai Health Authority.
European Union leaders met on Thursday to find ways to speed up the production and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in a race against the emergence of new variants that some fear could bring a third wave of the pandemic to the continent.
The executive European Commission told leaders 51.5 million doses of vaccines have so far been delivered to the bloc and 29.17 million administered, with about 5% of citizens having had their first dose, according to figures seen by Reuters.
The Commission and EU countries have come under fire for missteps in their joint inoculation programme and a stutering rollout of shots that has lagged badly behind Israel, Britain and the United States.
The 27 countries are pushing for smoother delivery of shots and ways to quickly produce updates to cope with mutations.
“We cannot afford to lose this batle,” the leaders of five EU countries said in a joint leter.
COVID-19 has killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide since the pandemic began in December 2019, according to a media count based on official figures on Thursday.
In total, 2,500,172 deaths and 112,618,488 cases have been reported. With 842,894 deaths, Europe is the hardest-hit region, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (667,972 deaths) and the US and Canada (528,039). Almost half of deaths have occurred in just five countries: the US, Brazil, Mexico, India and Britain.
Pakistan Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood on Thursday announced that all the schools would reopen for regular 5-day classes from March 1.
UAE reports 3,025 new cases, 18 deaths; 84,573 vaccine doses administered; DHA and Emirates to create digital verification of travellers’ COVID-19 records; EU seeks ways to speed up vaccine rollout; regular classes in Pak schools from Monday.