'No limit' on number of family members sitting together in Abu Dhabi restaurants and cafes

The change, approved by the emirate’s Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Committee, comes into effect on Saturday

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Family members can now sit together at restaurants and cafes in Abu Dhabi, with no limit of numbers.

However, authorities said overall capacity for restaurants and cafes remains at 60 per cent.

The new rule, which was approved by Abu Dhabi’s Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Committee, comes into effect on Saturday.

"The committee reaffirms the importance of adhering to approved capacity of 60 per cent for restaurants and cafes and maintaining other precautionary measures, to protect the health and safety of everyone within the community and preserve public health gains," said Abu Dhabi Media Office.

The UAE reported 2,188 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday.

This brought the country's total number of infections to 581,197.

Another 2,150 people beat the virus as total recoveries climbed to 560,734.

Health officials said five patients died of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the number of fatalities to 1,696.

There are 18,767 active cases in the country.

The Emirates carried out 246,510 additional tests in the 24-hour reporting period.

The UAE has implemented one of the world's fastest vaccination programmes in the world with 13,227,344 vaccine doses administered to date.