Coronavirus: UAE records 82 new Covid-19 cases and 97 recoveries

There are 3,356 active cases in the Emirates

The UAE continues to distribute vaccines at a rapid pace. AFP

Dubai residents waiting to receive their first dose of Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine in Jebel Ali. Pawan Singh / The National

The Emirates Group launched a Covid-19 vaccination programme for staff in the UAE in January. Photo: The Emirates Group

Khalifa bin Dary, executive director of Dubai Ambulance Services Corporation, receives his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Abdullah Al Falasi, director general of Dubai Government Human Resources Department, receives his first dose. Photo: Dubai Media Office

A billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road thanks volunteers for the Covid-19 vaccine trials being conducted in the UAE. Antonie Robertson / The National

A woman receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Zabeel Health Centre. EPA

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The UAE reported 82 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, after an additional 246,170 tests.

The new figures take the total number of infections recorded since the pandemic began to 740,729.

Officials said there were no deaths in the past 24 hours from Covid-19 complications, leaving the death toll at 2,142.

Another 97 people overcame the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 735,270.

There are currently 3,317 active cases in the Emirates.

New daily case numbers have been below 100 since October 21, while 98.76 per cent of the country's population has received a dose of the vaccine and 88.67 per cent is fully vaccinated.

To date, the UAE has administered 21,429,477 vaccine doses since December last year when the country embarked on a nationwide inoculation campaign.

More than 95.94 million tests have been conducted since the outbreak began at the end of January 2020, as part of the Emirates' testing and tracing strategy.

UAE health authorities have closed the first mobile Covid-19 testing centre to be established in the Emirates, set up when the pandemic was sweeping the world in 2020.

The Zayed Sports City drive-through facility in Abu Dhabi was the first of its kind and started operations in March that year.

Similar centres across the UAE soon opened as part of the battle against the pandemic. The centres were later used to administer vaccines on a mass scale.

Testing and one of the world's fastest vaccination campaigns have been central to the UAE curbing the pandemic.