The government’s Dubai Media Office says the sheikh is doing everything in his power to deal with the pandemic, although he has repeatedly refused to answer questions from The Associated Press about his hospital capacity.
“After a year of managing the pandemic, we can say with confidence that the current situation is under control and that we intend to increase any capacity in the healthcare system should the need arise,” he said.
However, former Dubai chief financial officer Nasser al-Shaikh on Thursday offered a different assessment on Twitter, asking authorities to take control of an increasing caseload.
“The leadership bases its decisions on the team’s recommendations, the wrong recommendations that endanger human souls and negatively impact our society,” he wrote, adding that “our economy requires accountability.”
Famous for its long-distance carrier Emirates, the world’s tallest building and its beaches and bars, Dubai became one of the first travel destinations to describe itself as open to business in July. The move exposed the bleeding of its important tourism and real estate sector after its economy shrank.
As tourism resumed, the daily reported number of coronavirus cases grew slowly, but it remained mostly stable.
But then came New Year’s Eve – a big draw for travelers from countries that would otherwise have shut down over the virus that partyed in pubs and yachts without face masks. Over the past 17 days, the United Arab Emirates as a whole has shown a record number of coronavirus cases as lines grow at Dubai test facilities.
In Israel, more than 900 travelers returning from Dubai are infected with the coronavirus, according to the army, which conducts contact detection. The returnees created a chain of infections that numbered more than 4,000 people, the Israeli military told AP.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have flocked to the UAE since the two countries normalized relations in September. Sharon Alroy-Preis, an expert on the Israeli Ministry of Health, is quoted by Channel 13 TV as saying in a call with other officials that a few weeks’ journey was more deadly than decades of no relations with the Arab nation.
Since the end of December, Israel has required those coming from the UAE to undergo a two-week quarantine. Israel later closed its main international airport until the end of the month on increasing issues.
In the UK, tabloid newspapers played shots of bikini-clad British influencers partying in Dubai while the country struggled to control the virus. Britain closed a trip to Dubai in mid-January that allowed travelers to skip quarantine over what is described as a significant acceleration in the number of cases imported from the UAE.
“International travel, at the moment, should not take place unless absolutely necessary,” health secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC this week. . ”
Meanwhile, mutated strains of the coronavirus have been linked to Dubai. The United Kingdom on Friday imposed a travel ban banning direct flights to the UAE over the spread of a South African variant of the coronavirus.
Denmark has already discovered one traveler who comes from Dubai and tested positive for the South African variant, the first discovery there. Like Britain, Danish celebrities are also traveling to Dubai for the new year.
In the Philippines, health authorities said they had discovered a British tribe infecting a Filipino and undertaking a business trip to Dubai on December 27. He returned to the Philippines on January 7 and tested positive.
He “had no exposure to a confirmed case before leaving for Dubai,” the Philippines’ health department said. In the time since, the Philippine authorities have discovered at least 16 other cases of the British variant, including two from Lebanon.
As daily reports of coronavirus cases close to 4000, Dubai fired the head of its health agency without explanation. It discontinued live entertainment at pubs, stopped non-essential surgeries, limited wedding sizes and ordered gyms to increase the space between those exercising. It also now requires coronavirus testing for anyone flying to the airport.
The UAE has pinned its hopes on mass vaccinations, with Abu Dhabi distributing a Chinese vaccine through Sinopharm and Dubai hosting Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccination. The UAE says it has given 2.8 million doses so far and ranks it among the top countries in the world.
However, people, including Al-Shaikh, are now questioning Dubai’s ability to handle the growing issues. Hospitals contacted by the AP have largely referred questions back to the Dubai government, which has repeatedly declined to comment. The German Saudi hospital in Dubai responded by saying it “hopes to read the real news” without expanding it.
Dr Santosh Kumar Sharma, the medical director of the NMC Royal Hospital in Dubai, told the AP “the number of cases (which) is still increasing,” with more than half of its beds occupied by coronavirus patients.
The World Health Organization said the UAE had nearly 13,250 beds for a country with more than 9 million people before the pandemic. It said Dubai and the United Arab Emirates’ northern emirates had built field hospitals amid the 5,000-bed pandemic, with more than Abu Dhabi building.
But Dubai closed its 3,000-bed field hospital in July – the same day it reopened to tourism. Both Dubai and the UAE’s health ministry are now advertising for nurses on Instagram.
“The sad thing is that since January 2020, great efforts have been made to undermine it with our own hands,” al-Shaikh wrote. “What makes matters worse is the lack of transparency.”
However, it came after the UAE’s autocratic government called on those concerned earlier this week to “question the efforts of all those who worked to contain this pandemic.”
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Associated Press authors Joseph Federman in Jerusalem and Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.