Dubai, the United Arab Emirate's business hub, has extended a 24-hours-a-day curfew imposed as part of a sterilization drive to control the spread of the coronavirus by a week, the government said in a Twitter post on Friday.
The UAE has imposed a nationwide nightly curfew since March 26 for the disinfection campaign, but Dubai on April 4 expanded it within the emirate to a 24-hour lockdown for two weeks.
The country on Thursday reported 460 new cases and two more deaths from the virus, taking its tally to 5,825 with 35 deaths. It does not give a breakdown for each of the seven emirates.
The Emirates Red Crescent humanitarian organization will "foster and care for" the families of those who have died in the UAE from the COVID-19 lung disease caused by the virus, the federal government said in a Twitter post on Friday.
The UAE has the second-highest infection count after its much larger neighbor, Saudi Arabia, among the six Gulf Arab states, where the total infection count has surpassed 22,000, with more than 140 deaths.
Saudi Arabia has installed thermal cameras to monitor the body temperature of the limited number of worshippers allowed to enter the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, media said.
Gulf states have taken drastic containment measures but seen a spread among low-income migrant workers living in cramped quarters. Several countries have offered free testing to foreign workers, who make up the bulk of the labor force, and taken steps to rehouse thousands in schools or dedicated centers.
Qatar, which has locked down part of an industrial zone where many migrant workers live and work, on Friday announced 560 new cases, mostly among expatriate workers quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19 cases.