Up to Dhs250,000 penalty for AD schools breaking virus rules
As schools throughout Abu Dhabi continue to reopen, the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge ( ADEK) has announced it will continue regular inspections of all schools and nurseries to ensure ongoing compliance to wide-ranging COVID-19 prevention protocols and secure the safety of all staff, pupils, and parents.
ADEK has identified a sliding scale of penalties for regulation breaches with fines ranging from Dhs10,000 to Dhs250,000.
Repeated non-compliance can lead to schools being forced to shit to distance learning provision, with parents entitled to remove their children from the school and gain fee refunds.
Based on inspections, non-compliant nurseries can be immediately moved to distance learning for a week, or fined.
As of Feb.21, ADEK has conducted inspections at 221 schools reopening for in-classroom education and 119 operational nurseries.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) announced that it conducted 165,357 additional COVID-19 tests and deteected 3,158 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also announced 15 deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
It also noted that an additional 4,298 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention also announced that 86,560 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were given in the past 24 hours. The total number of doses provided up to today stands at 5,553,391 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 56.15 doses per 100 people.
Kuwait will allow non-Kuwaiti citizens to enter the country starting Feb.21 ( Sunday) with some new procedures, the civil aviation authority said in a statement late on Friday.
Travellers arriving on direct flights from high risk countries will have to resort to institutional quarantine in one of the local hotels for 14 days, while travellers coming from the rest of the world will have to quarantine institutionally for one week and another at home.
Kuwait suspended entry for non-citizens for two weeks starting Feb.7 amid efforts to deal with the coronavirus.
Iran closed several crossing points with Iraq on Saturday in an effort to stem the spread of a mutant variant of coronavirus which the Iranian health minister said was entering from the neighbouring country.
Crossing points to Iraq from Khuzestan province as well as the nearby provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah were being closed to travellers, Saeed Namaki told state TV.
The number of coronavirus vaccine doses administered worldwide passed 200 million Saturday, a media count showed, as wealthy G7 countries pledged to more than double aid to support access for the less well-off.
With 45 percent of injections so far among the rich club - which accounts for just 10 per cent of the global population - the G7 on Friday said its aid to projects like the World Health Organisation’s Covax now amount to $7.5 billion.
The increased pledges from the US, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada came as permanent UN Security Council member Britain showed a drat resolution to other countries on the global body, calling for wealthy nations to share doses with poor and war-torn states.
Seen by AFP, the text “emphasises the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income countries and other countries in need.”
Meanwhile Russia pressed ahead with its home-grown vaccination programme, saying 120,000 doses of its third authorised coronavirus vaccine, Covivac, will reach people by March, following in the footsteps of the Sputnik V and Epivaccorona shots.
The new vaccine, still in final stage clinical trials, was produced by the state-run Chumakov Centre based in Moscow and employed a different method of development from Sputnik and Epivaccorona, using an inactive virus.
New Zealand began what director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield called a “small but important step in a long journey” by launching jabs for high risk citizens and those returning from overseas, along with border and quarantine workers.
Neighbouring Australia is set to start its own scheme on Monday.
Repeated violations can lead to Abu Dhabi schools being forced to go 100% online; UAE reports 3,158 new cases, 15 deaths; Kuwait to allow non-citizens to enter country from Sunday; world tops 200 million virus vaccine doses.