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UAE lowers age requirement for COVID-19 vaccines to 16, reports 3,453 new cases

The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 253,261, while the death toll rose to 745. (File/WAM)
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Updated 19 January 2021
Arab News
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UAE lowers age requirement for COVID-19 vaccines to 16, reports 3,453 new cases

  • UAE says 3,268 have recovered over the past 24 hours
  • Kuwait records 378 cases, Bahrain reports 339 cases and 2 deaths
Updated 19 January 2021
Arab News

DUBAI: The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHaP) announced on Sunday that the coronavirus vaccine will be available to all citizens and residents from the age of 16, lowering the minimum age requirement from 18.
The ministry said it had upgraded its categories for groups eligible to receive the vaccine as part of the country’s national campaign to inoculate 50 percent of the population against the virus by April, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority announced.
The UAE is offering all residents and citizens free of charge a vaccine manufactured by Chinese state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, while people living in Dubai have the choice of either the Sinopharm or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“This confirms the UAE’s proactive approach to caring for the health and safety of every member of society,” a statement published on state-run WAM said.
The UAE on Sunday recorded 3,453 new COVID-19 cases, a record daily high for the fifth consecutive day, and five deaths related to the virus.
Officials from MoHAP said that the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 253,261, while the death toll had risen to 745.
Some 3,268 people had recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 225,374.

MoHap also said that 84,852 doses have been administered during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people to have received the vaccine to more than 1.88 million, at a rate of 25.12 doses per 100 people.
Tightening rules to enter the emirate, the Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee and the Department of Health have approved screening and travel protocols for individuals who have received the vaccination as part of the national vaccination programs or as volunteers in clinical trials, effective Jan. 17.
“Those arriving from ‘green’ countries must take a PCR test on arrival and on day six, without the need to quarantine. Those arriving from other countries must take a PCR test on arrival, quarantine for 10 days and take a PCR test on day eight,” it said.
Dubai Health Authority said that it had launched a new COVID-19 vaccination center within 72 hours, with a capacity to administer 4,000 doses per day.

The total number of centers providing the coronavirus vaccine in Dubai has now reached 120, Dubai Media Office said, to meet the rise in infections and the growing demand for the vaccination.
During daily inspection tours, Dubai Economy issued fines to eight commercial establishments for failing to adhere to anti-COVID-19 measures. Inspection teams found 362 other businesses to be compliant.
Dubai Municipality announced it had intensified its inspection campaigns and said that it closed down one hair salon and issued fines to 22 businesses for not complying with the precautionary measures.
A research team from Khalifa University of Science and Technology has developed an application for smartphones to identify whether people are in the high-risk category using machine intelligence.

The app, called CovidSense, will also help users under quarantine to monitor their symptoms and location, and enables them to follow their health status by collecting data and recording sounds related to breathing, coughing and heart rate.
Sharjah Police launched a health campaign under the slogan “Together for Immunization” to provide doses of the coronavirus vaccine for all its employees until Jan. 21.
Col. Youssef Obaid bin Haramul, director of Comprehensive Police Stations, said the campaign was a series of initiatives launched by Sharjah Police to reduce the spread of the virus, and provide safety and security for its affiliates who may experience health risks due to the nature of their work.
Elsewhere, Kuwait reported 378 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 157,777. The death toll remained at 947 after no coronavirus-related deaths were reported in the previous 24 hours.

Oman’s Health Ministry said that its total number of cases had reached 131,790 and the death toll was 1,512.

In Bahrain, two deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 360, while 339 new infected cases were confirmed.

Topics: UAE COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech Sinopharm Ministry of Health and Prevention National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority Abu Dhabi Emergency Crisis and Disasters Committee Kuwait Oman Bahrain Dubai Health Authority Dubai Media Office dubai economy Dubai Municipality Khalifa University of Science and Technology sharjah police

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Gaza’s Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life

Updated 02 January 2025
Reuters
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Gaza’s Islamic Jihad says Israeli hostage tried to take own life

  • One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying
Updated 02 January 2025
Reuters

DUBAI: An Israeli hostage held by Gaza’s Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday.
One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage’s identity or current condition.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Militants led by Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in an attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the assault.
The military campaign that Israel launched in response has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the coastal enclave.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the hostage had tried to take his own life three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into more details.
Abu Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of setting new conditions that had led to “the failure and delay” of negotiations for the hostage’s release.
The man had been scheduled to be released with other hostages under the conditions of the first stage of an exchange deal with Israel, Abu Hamza said. He did not specify when the man had been scheduled to be released or under which deal.
Arab mediators’ efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages in return for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing had issued a decision to tighten the security and safety measures for the hostages, Abu Hamza added.
In July, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it started treating them in what it said was the same way that Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.
“We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,” Abu Hamza said at that time. Israel has dismissed accusations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners.

Topics: War on Gaza

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 37 across Gaza, medics say

Updated 25 min 36 sec ago
Agencies
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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 37 across Gaza, medics say

Updated 25 min 36 sec ago
Agencies

CAIRO: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families, medics said.
They said the 11 included women and children in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, now in its 15th month. The director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, were killed in the strike, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry.
“By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the (enclave) and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” it added in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, calling him the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah’s death.
Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six in the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, the Shati (Beach) camp and central Gaza’s Maghazi camp.
Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control center “embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the Humanitarian Area.”
Asked about the reported 37 deaths, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and that it took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
The military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this.
Hamas’ smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets into the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile in the area that had crossed from southern Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins. The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. 

Topics: War on Gaza

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27 migrants die off Tunisia, 83 rescued, in shipwrecks: civil defence

Updated 02 January 2025
AFP
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27 migrants die off Tunisia, 83 rescued, in shipwrecks: civil defence

Updated 02 January 2025
AFP

TUNIS:  Twenty-seven migrants, including women and children, died after two boats capsized off central Tunisia, with 83 people rescued, a civil defense official told AFP on Thursday.
The rescued and dead passengers, who were found off the Kerkennah Islands off central Tunisia, were aiming to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries, said Zied Sdiri, head of civil defense in the city of Sfax.
Searches were still underway for other possible missing passengers, according to the Tunisian National Guard, which oversees the coast guard.
Tunisia is a key departure point for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe with Italy, whose island of Lampedusa is only 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Tunisia, often their first port of call.
Each year, tens of thousands of people attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing, which has seen a spate of recent shipwrecks, with the dangers exacerbated by bad weather.
On December 18, at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off the city of Sfax, with five others missing.
Earlier on December 12, the coast guard rescued 27 African migrants near Jebeniana, north of Sfax, but 15 were reported dead or missing.
Since the beginning of the year, the Tunisian human rights group FTDES has counted “between 600 and 700” migrants killed or missing in shipwrecks off Tunisia. More than 1,300 migrants died or disappeared in 2023.
kl/bou/dcp

Syria forces launch security sweep in Homs city: state media

Updated 02 January 2025
AFP
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Syria forces launch security sweep in Homs city: state media

  • Syrian security forces are conducting a security sweep in the city of Homs, state media reported on Thursday
Updated 02 January 2025
AFP

DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces are conducting a security sweep in the city of Homs, state media reported on Thursday, with a monitor saying targets include protest organizers from the Alawite minority of the former president.
“The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the Military Operations Department, begins a wide-scale combing operation in the neighborhoods of Homs city,” state news agency SANA said quoting a security official.
The statement said the targets were “war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons and go to the settlement centers” but also “fugitives from justice, in addition to hidden ammunition and weapons.”
Since Islamist-led rebels seized power in a lightning offensive last month, the transitional government has been registering former conscripts and soldiers and asking them to hand over their weapons.
“The Ministry of Interior calls on the residents of the neighborhoods of Wadi Al-Dhahab, Akrama not to go out to the streets, remain home, and fully cooperate with our forces,” the statement said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, told AFP the two districts are majority-Alawite — the community from which ousted President Bashar Assad hails.
“The ongoing campaign aims to search for former Shabiha and those who organized or participated in the Alawite demonstrations last week, which the administration considered as incitement against” its authority, he said.
Shabiha were notorious pro-government militias tasked with helping to crush dissent under Assad.
On December 25, thousands protested in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country’s north.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage or the date of the incident but the interior ministry said the video was “old and dates to the time of the liberation” of Aleppo in December.
Since seizing power, Syria’s new leadership has repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed.
Alawites fear backlash against their community both as a religious minority and because of its long association with the Assad family.
Last week, security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad fighters in the western province of Tartus, in the Alawite heartland, state media had said, a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes there.

Topics: Fall of Assad

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Palestinian Authority suspends broadcast of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV temporarily

Updated 02 January 2025
Reuters
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Palestinian Authority suspends broadcast of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV temporarily

  • The authority accuses the broadcaster of sowing division in the Middle East and Palestine
  • The authority says Al-Jazeera was airing 'inciting material' from Jenin camp in the West Bank
Updated 02 January 2025
Reuters

CAIRO: The Palestinian Authority suspended the broadcast of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV temporarily over “inciting material,” Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday.
A ministerial committee that includes the culture, interior and communications ministries decided to suspend the broadcaster’s operations over what they described as broadcasting “inciting material and reports that were deceiving and stirring strife” in the country.
The decision isn’t expected to be implemented in Hamas-run Gaza where the Palestinian Authority does not exercise power.
Al-Jazeera TV last week came under criticism by the Palestinian Authority over its coverage of the weeks-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank.
Fatah, the faction which controls the Palestinian Authority, said the broadcaster was sowing division in “our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular.” It encouraged Palestinians not to cooperate with the network.
Israeli forces in September issued Al-Jazeera with a military order to shut down operations, after they raided the outlet’s bureau in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

 

Topics: Al-Jazeera Palestine

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