MERS alert tightened as 100th case emerges

September 12, 2013

MERS_alertRiyadh, Sep 12: Saudi Arabia is deploying local and international resources to contain the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), says a top health official.

His remarks came as the Ministry of Health confirmed the 100th MERS case in the Kingdom.

The ministry has pledged to double its efforts to control the spread of the disease through continuous surveillance across the Kingdom.

The ministry reported four new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 100 cases, including 47 deaths.

A ministry official said two of the new cases were from Riyadh and the other two were reported in Madinah.

In Madinah, the victims included a 22-year-old male citizen who was in contact with a MERS patient and a 24-year-old male citizen working in the health sector in Madinah.

In Riyadh, two Saudi men, 60 and 47 years of age, had contracted the virus from MERS patients.

Dr. Ziad Al-Memish, undersecretary to the Ministry of Health for Public Health, told Arab News that the ministry had already advised people who had contracted the virus to postpone their pilgrimage.

He said the ministry would keep the people informed of any new developments.

Medical specialists are struggling to understand MERS, for which there is still no vaccine.

It also has an extremely high fatality rate of more than 51 percent.

It is considered a cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

The Ministry of Health recently traced MERS to bats in the Kingdom.

Scientists from the Kingdom and the US have found DNA matching the MERS virus in a sample taken from a bat in Saudi Arabia.

The study was initially conducted by a team of researchers from the Kingdom, as well as from Columbia University, who detected MERS in a bat near the home of a man who died from the disease. The team found a small fragment of the virus’s genes in the animal that matched those seen in the patient.

The study, headed by the Ministry of Health, was conducted from October to April. It was initially conducted on 76 bats from the areas, in which the virus cases were identified.

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News Network
May 31,2020

Dubai, May 31: As many as 84 beggars have been arrested in Dubai during the Eid Al Fitr holiday, the Dubai Police have said.

The arrests were carried out as part of their anti-begging campaign to prevent begging during the holy month of Ramadan.

Some illegal vendors, too, have been arrested in different areas of the emirate, the police added.

Colonel Ali Salem, Director of the Infiltrators Department at the Criminal Investigations Department of Dubai Police, said that the campaign aims to maintain the safety and security of the society, adding that the campaign was successful and helped reduce the number of beggars across the emirate.

He called on the public to report begging activities to the number 901 or the Dubai Police app.

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Agencies
July 2,2020

With the launch of the Emirates Mars Mission less than a couple of weeks away, the spacecraft that will carry the UAE's Hope Probe to outer space has already been fuelled, it was announced today.

At a virtual briefing by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) today, the media was informed that scientists are busy giving finishing touches to the Hope Mars Mission, which will give mankind a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere once the UAE's indigenous probe reaches the Red Planet's orbit in 2021.

As the monitoring continues, final charging of the batteries is also ongoing, scientists said.

The space engineers averred that with this mission, the momentum in the region for space awareness will continue not only among young Emiratis but also among other youngsters in the Arab world.

The Hope Probe is scheduled to take off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre on July 15 at 00:51:27 UAE time.

The first Arab space mission to the Red Planet remained on track despite the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spacecraft will provide the first global pictures of the Martian atmosphere and data will be shared freely with over 200 research centres across the world. It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.

450 engineers, technicians and experts are involved in the project.  This comprises of 12,000 tasks in 6 years and entails 5.5 million working hours.

It includes 200 new technologies and 15 scientific partnerships with global universities and institutions.

The spaceship will travel 495 million km. It has a cruise speed of 121,000km/hour.

MBRSC is responsible for the execution and supervision of all stages of the design, development and launch of the Hope Probe. The UAE Space Agency is funding and supervising procedures and necessary details for the implementation of this project. After its launch in mid-July and following a journey of several months, the probe is expected to enter the Red Planet's orbit in 2021, coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of the Union.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Dubai, Jul 31: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia tweeted early on Friday sending congratulations to everyone on Eid Al Adha.

"I congratulate everyone on the blessed Eid Al Adha. May Allah [grant us another Eid where we will be in] good, blessings, health, and wellness," King Salman said.

"We also ask [God] to accept the pilgrimage of those who completed Haj, and [to accept] Muslims' prayers, and to remove the coronavirus pandemic in our countries," he added.

King Salman left King Faisal hospital in Riyadh after recovering on Thursday, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Thursday.

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