Latest: Dubai to impose new restrictions on travel and shopping
Face masks should be worn at all times when outside the home, the Government said on Saturday.
Residents were urged to buy or use home-made masks to cover the mouth and nose, health sector spokeswoman Dr Farida Al Hosani said.
Even basic masks offer some protection and could prevent the spread of germs from coughing, she said.
“An alternative option, in the absence of a medical mask, is to cover the nose and mouth using paper masks,” Dr Al Hosani said.
When I wear a mask I'm protecting you and when you wear it, you're protecting me
"Or use home-made masks made of cotton or mixed cotton, making sure to re-wash them.
"When I wear a mask I'm protecting you and when you wear it, you're protecting me."
The message came as 241 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed, taking the total to 1,505. The death of an Arab national, aged 53, took the death toll to 10. Seventeen more people recovered, for a total of 125.
The new tally means the number of cases almost tripled in a week.
Dr Al Hosani said the rise was expected and would continue as a result of "early, intensive tests on a big scale to identify cases and who they were in contact with".
She confirmed for the first time that some patients will be allowed to recover at home, if their symptoms were mild.
"We're having home quarantine and quarantine in specialist isolation facilities, based on the severity of cases," she said.
Any decision to allow home recovery would be based on how many people the patient lived with and the guarantee they could be kept separate, she said.
Officials also updated the public on the economic effects of the virus, in a briefing by Humaid Al Mehairi, spokesman for the Ministry of Economy.
"The national economy of the UAE is competitive, resilient and has strong links with economies globally, therefore it is impacted by the current crisis," he said.
He said efforts were under way to ensure that supermarkets and food suppliers have access to the goods they need. The ministry has a database of 1,600 main outlets that provide the public with essential items.
"We have a clear plan in order to have enough stock of the main commodities in continuous supply.
"Further, we have co-ordinated with suppliers and outlets to guarantee the selling of those goods at reasonable prices."
The time it takes to clear food shipments at customs has been cut from two days to only a few hours, he said.
Extra staff were also drafted in to probe price hiking and retailers were told they cannot make more than 5 per cent profit on hand sanitisers and disinfectants.
Mr Al Mehairi repeated the need to avoid stockpiling food at home.
"During this crisis we've had some consumption habits which were not really sound, such as overbuying and storing food at home," he said.
"You don't need to have that – our markets do not have any shortage ... and local production [of goods] continues.
"We ask all people to feel confident and not to overbuy."
Mr Al Mehairi said officials were aware of the clear effects on the tourism industry, but predicted it would bounce back as the situation improves.
"The tourism sector is one of the most impacted by the current crisis due to the suspension of flights, travel and movement," he said. "Despite that, it has strong fundamentals and it is expected it will be the first sector to recover after the crisis."
UAE hotels light up to thank medical workers
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
