Coronavirus: UAE reports 256 new cases and zero deaths

The UAE reported 256 new coronavirus cases and 331 recoveries on Saturday.

Officials said no deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.

The country has recorded 736,524 cases since the first Covid-19 case was detected in the Emirates on January 29 last year, as well as 729,242 recoveries.

Over the past 18 months, 2,100 patients have succumbed to the virus across all seven emirates.

Widespread testing and tracing, stringent safety measures and a high vaccination rate have brought down daily infections over the past few months.

Daily case tallies have dropped to below 300 recently from a high of about 4,000 a day in January.

An additional 305,131 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 84 million since the outbreak began.

On Saturday, officials in California announced it would become the first US state to mandate statewide Covid-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren, as a Reuters tally showed the country topping 700,000 coronavirus deaths.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the state already requires pupils to be vaccinated against viruses that cause measles, mumps and rubella.

"There’s no reason why we wouldn’t do the same for Covid-19," he said.