Coronavirus: UAE records 104 new cases and zero deaths

The UAE reported 104 new coronavirus cases and 142 recoveries on Monday.

Officials said no one died from the virus in the 24-hour reporting period.

The country has recorded 738,690 cases, 732,438 recoveries and 2,120 deaths since the first Covid-19 case was detected in the Emirates on January 29 last year.

Widespread testing and tracing, stringent safety measures and a high vaccination rate are credited with bringing down the daily infection rate.

Cases have dropped to numbers first recorded at the start of the pandemic, after reaching close to 4,000 a day in January.

An additional 258,717 tests were conducted over the 24-hour period, bringing to 89,561,303 the total number carried out since the beginning of the outbreak.

More than 86 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, as the influenza season approaches, a doctor at a leading hospital in Abu Dhabi said patients should be tested for both flu and Covid-19 to establish what the illness is and confirm a diagnosis.

Dr Fernanda Bonilla, an infectious disease consultant at Cleveland Clinic, said both diseases have varying signs and symptoms but PCR tests can give instant results.

She said if people feel sick they should go to hospital instead of merely taking a PCR test and assuming they are down with flu if the first test is negative.