Hope Consortium: Abu Dhabi health chief says strict Covid-19 measures remain to keep public safe

Abdullah Al Hamed says the UAE uses data to carefully gauge when to tighten or relax restrictions

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  A Syrian refugee receives a Covid-19 vaccine at a medical centre in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in February. AFP

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  Syrian refugees wait to receive their vaccine at Zaatari. AFP

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  The UK is leading calls for a vaccination ceasefire to allow Covid-19 vaccines to reach people living in conflict zones. AFP

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  About $2.4bn has been raised for the UN-backed Covax campaign to help developing countries that are unable to afford their own vaccine stockpiles. AFP

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  A medical worker prepares the coronavirus vaccine made by Sinopharm to administer to Syrian refugees in Jordan. AP Photo

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  Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab highlighted the 160 million people who could miss out on Covid-19 vaccination because of conflict in their countries. AP Photo

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  Syrian refugees ride their bicycles in the Zaatari camp, where a Covid-19 vaccination programme has begun. EPA

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  'Global vaccination coverage is essential to beating coronavirus,' UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. EPA

Covid-19 precautions across the UAE remain strict in order to protect those living here and people coming from abroad, a health chief said.

Sheikh Abdullah Al Hamed, chairman of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, said the UAE used data to gauge when to tighten or relax restrictions.

He said the government monitors 30 separate numbers, including the capacity of hospitals, on a daily basis when making its decisions.

"We go by facts, by numbers, the death toll, the capacity in hospitals," Sheikh Abdullah said.

We are still taking these measures because we really want to make sure everyone is safe

“All of these things have been decided by these numbers.

“We are still taking these measures, even harsher than they should be, because we really want to make sure everyone is safe, whether someone is coming from outside the UAE or people who are living in the UAE.”

Sheikh Abdullah spoke at a virtual conference organised by the Hope Consortium, an Abu Dhabi-based logistics group set up to deliver vaccines around the globe.

It also heard from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, Mark Suzman, chief executive of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.

Mr Suzman praised the UAE's approach in tackling the pandemic.

“The UAE has continued to play its part," he said.

"You rightly focused on protecting your own people from the virus, while at the same time seeking ways to help protect people in other countries.

"Because you understand that ending the pandemic means ending the disease everywhere.”

The UAE has provided invaluable assistance to 70 countries during the pandemic, he said.

"The message from our leadership is to work with other countries, to help them out, because by us helping them, they are also helping us indirectly to stop the spread of this virus," Sheikh Abdullah said.

He said the foreign media coverage of tourists returning from Dubai in the winter was unfair.

Many of the countries they returned to were themselves completely closed to visitors and had high infections and deaths rates, he said.

The UAE’s numbers are much lower, he said.

“A lot of media talked about people coming [back] from Dubai to their countries, infected," he said.

“Well, you know, the thing doesn’t match. Their countries are closed. They have high deaths and infections. Our numbers are way, way, much lower.

“It is considered one of the lowest in the world.”