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A surge in cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19d, combined with low vaccination rates, is fuelling a public health emergency and a sharp increase in deaths across the Eastern Mediterranean region, the World Health Organisation reported on Monday.
“As we work hard to take steps to control the Covid-19 pandemic, the virus continues to mutate and spread faster and more aggressively across the region, with severe public health consequences,” said Dr Rana Hajjeh, director of programme management at WHO/EMRO.
Among the countries hardest hit are Lebanon and Tunisia, which are embroiled in political and economic upheaval as their health services are under significant strain.
“Both countries are facing a concerning increase in the numbers of cases and deaths, and their health systems have been brought to their knees, leaving health care workers overwhelmed, and critical shortages in medical supplies,” Dr Hajjeh said.
The WHO defines the Eastern Mediterranean as an area of its operations extending through the Middle East and North Africa to include Pakistan and Afghanistan, covering a total population of nearly 679 million people.
The highly infectious Delta variant, first detected in India and now in 132 countries, has been reported in 15 countries in the region.
An average of 363,000 new cases and 4,300 deaths a week were reported across the region over the past four weeks, a 67 per cent and 24 per cent increase on last month.
More than 12.6 million cases and 237,000 deaths have been reported in the region since the pandemic began.
Countries reporting a substantial increase in cases and deaths over the past month include Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia and Tunisia.
“A few countries in the region are experiencing a significant rise in cases and deaths as a result of the Delta variant, which is being reported mainly among unvaccinated people,” Dr Hajjeh said.
“This makes it even more critical that all countries must receive enough vaccine doses quickly, and that people take the vaccine at the first opportunity they are offered it.”
The Delta variant, which will soon become the dominant variant globally, is almost 60 per cent more transmissible than the original virus, said Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, infectious hazards manager at WHO/EMRO.
Research shows the risk of hospital admission for people infected with the Delta variant is on average 120 per cent higher, and the risk of death 137 per cent higher. Those infected by the Delta variant are on average 287 per cent more likely to be admitted to intensive care.
Emergency rooms have been overwhelmed, ICUs have been saturated beyond 95 per cent and the need for medical oxygen has increased eightfold
Dr Yves Souteyrand,
WHO representative in Tunisia
Across the region, 132 million vaccine doses have been administered and only 44 million people – less than 6 per cent of the population – are fully vaccinated.
In Tunisia, more than 90 per cent of all reported infections are due to the Delta variant, which was detected in the country on June 24.
“This is being fuelled by low adherence to public health and social measures, as well as low vaccination coverage,” Dr Hajjeh said.
About 8 per cent of Tunisia's 11.8 million population is fully vaccinated. It has reported more than 595,000 cases and more than 20,000 deaths.
“Emergency rooms have been overwhelmed, ICUs have been saturated beyond 95 per cent and the need for medical oxygen has increased eightfold,” said Dr Yves Souteyrand, the WHO representative in Tunisia.
“Swift public health measures have been implemented at the national level, including full lockdown in governorates with the highest incident rate."
At the same time, the country is dealing with political uncertainty following the Tunisian President Kais Saied’s decision to suspend Parliament and dismiss his prime minister last week.
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Dr Souteyrand said the political situation was “not ideal for the efforts provided by the Ministry of Health to tackle the Covid-19 crisis”.
However, “the emergency committee that was established by the government a few days ago will reap fruit soon”, he said.
On the positive side, Tunisia received several large shipments of vaccines, including one million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the US on Friday.
In Lebanon, which detected the Delta variant on July 2, about 12 per cent of its population of 6.8 million is fully vaccinated.
The Delta variant is now the dominant strain in the country and the Covid-19 positive test rate is at 5.7 per cent, compared to less than 1 per cent one and a half months ago, said Dr Iman Shankiti, the WHO representative in Lebanon.
About 93 per cent of new cases are people who are either unvaccinated or have received only one dose, she said.
Lebanon’s political and economic crisis is due to decades of corruption and mismanagement, combined with a lack of foreign currency reserves that has left half of the population below the poverty line.
The resulting problems in the health sector include a shortage of medications, a brain drain of health professionals, poor infrastructure and lack of affordability.
Around 2,000 doctors and 1,500 registered nurses have left the country, the medical syndicate said.
“Hospitals are right now at 50 per cent capacity because of the lack of fuel, electricity, water, sanitation and transportation,” Dr Shankiti said.
“I hope we don’t get to a place where we cannot serve those who need an ICU bed.”
Health care hit by Beirut blast
This week also marks one year since the Beirut port blast killed 200 people, injured 6,000 and displaced 300,000.
“The aftermath of the explosion saw cases of Covid-19 skyrocket, including among health care workers, and the impact of this continues to be seen today, as the health system continues to struggle with limited resources amid the worst economic and social crisis in recent history,” Dr Hajjeh said.
She urged wealthier countries to donate vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries, and appealed to individuals to continue using preventative measures.
“Unfortunately, there is still a worrying inequity in the distributions of vaccines, with many countries in our region severely impacted,” she said.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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EA Sports FC 25
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Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
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TICKETS
For tickets for the two-day Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) event, entitled Dubai Invasion 2019, on September 27 and 28 go to www.meraticket.com.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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Jetour T1 specs
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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
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