UAE flies out Arabs from China for treatment in the Emirates
ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates has coordinated with various embassies for the evacuation of Arab nationals from Wuhan City in China. The evacuees will be received at the newly established Emirates Humanitarian City in the UAE, and will undergo medical testing and monitoring to ensure their health and safety.
The move follows the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to establish a healthcare facility that will provide the individuals hailing from neighbouring Arab countries with the necessary monitoring and preventative medical care following their evacuation from the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak — China’s Wuhan City.
Sheikh Mohamed said, “I share in the UAE’S commitment to the greater good for humankind as we evacuate foreign nationals in Hubei. They will receive the best medical care before they return home. We thank the Chinese government for its assistance.”
A special aircraft carrying some 215 individuals from Wuhan was equipped with HEPA cabin air filtrations systems, medical supplies and equipment necessary to carry out the evacuation procedure, along with medical response teams and cabin crew trained to carry out the evacuation.
The UAE Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri said, “The UAE is showing its leadership in humanity and tolerance, equipping its ‘Emirates Humanitarian City’ with the latest medical equipment to host citizens from other countries evacuated from China’s Hubei Province #Emirates_humanitarian_city #Uae_china…”
The Emirates Humanitarian City has been set up as per the highest standards to facilitate high-quality care for individuals admitted, ensuring their privacy and dignity are maintained throughout their stay.
Individuals will undergo a 14-day quarantine period during which they will undertake the necessary medical and laboratory tests, and be monitored to ensure their health and safety.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the UAE Embassy in China have coordinated with the embassies of the countries concerned to organise the evacuation process as part of the UAE’S continuous efforts to enhance cooperation with the Chinese government to contain the spread of the virus.
More than 90,000 people have been infected and around 3,200 have died worldwide from the virus, the vast majority in China where COVID-19 first emerged late last year.
The coronavirus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia on Wednesday banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Makkah, while Iran cancelled Friday prayers in major cities.
Saudi Arabia has announced the temporary suspension of Umrah pilgrimage for citizens and residents in the Kingdom, following coronavirus concerns.
“This decision is reviewed continuously and the implementation of it stops whenever the reasons that called for it are negated,” said an official source of the Ministry of Interior in a statement published by the Saudi state news agency, SPA.
“This preventive decision is among precautionary measures that the Kingdom’s government has consistently taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19, epidemic,” it added.
In Iran, authorities halted Friday prayers in all provincial capitals amid the country’s growing coronavirus outbreak, which has killed at least 92 people amid 2,922 confirmed cases.
“This disease is a widespread one,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his Cabinet, according to a transcript. “It encompasses almost all of our provinces and is, in a sense, a global disease that many countries in the world have become infected with, and we must work together to tackle this problem as quickly as possible.”
India has moved into top security mode as cases of COVID-19 infections rose on Wednesday. The Union Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that confirmed cases in India has shot up to 28 while 27,000 people had been placed under community surveillance in different states.
South Korea reported 435 new infections on Wednesday, far smaller than its high of 851 a day earlier.
A total of 5,621 people in South Korea have contracted the virus and 32 have died.
The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed 129 confirmed and presumed cases in the United States from the previous 108. The cases were 80 reported by public health authorities in 13 states plus 49 among people repatriated from abroad, according to the CDC website. North Carolina became the 13th state to report a case on Tuesday.
Nine people have died in the Seattle area, health officials said.
From calling in the army to requisitioning hospital beds, European nations are drawing up emergency plans should the coronavirus outbreak reach pandemic proportions and severely disrupt daily life.