ABU DHABI 3 May 2020: The UAE Government announced on Saturday that 121 new patients fully recovered from Covid-19 after receiving the necessary medical care, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 2,664.
The announcement was made during the regular media briefing held in Abu Dhabi, wherein Dr. Amna Al Dahak Al Shamsi, the official spokesperson for the UAE Government, Fatima Alkaabi, Head Hematology& Oncology at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, and Dr. Alawi Al Sheikh, the spokesman for the advanced science sector, gave an update on the coronavirus-related developments and measures taken to mitigate its impact, said Wam.
Al Shamsi said that over 36,266 additional Covid-19 tests have been conducted among UAE citizens and residents over the past few days in line with the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s plans to intensify virus screening in order to contain the spread of Covid-19.
“The accelerated investigative measures resulted in the detection of 561 new coronavirus cases among various nationalities, all of whom are in a stable condition and receiving the necessary care, taking to 13,599 the total number of infections in the country,” she added.
“Thanks to the efforts of all those working at the country’s healthcare sector, thousands of tests are being conducted on a daily basis,” she said, noting that the past two weeks saw an average of 29,000 screenings daily.
Al Shamsi announced the death of eight patients from Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths to 119, expressing her sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to all patients.
Stem Cell Therapy
On stem cell therapy, Fatima Alkaabi said: “We have isolated a type of primitive stem cells, called embryonic stem cell, which researchers think carry regenerative potential. They belong to that type of cells that are capable of regenerating damaged cells to reduce lung inflammation resulting from Covid-19, and thereby can help these cells to self-regenerate.
“The advantage provided by these cells is that they don’t require surgical intervention as is the case with other types of stem cells. They require a blood sample to be taken from the patient with the therapy to be inhaled into the lungs without surgical intervention. After a blood sample has been taken, the cells therein are subjected to a biological chemical process where the platelets responsible for growth are used to activate these cells so that we can get them inhaled back into the lungs.”
She added that a total of 73 patients, in the mild to critical bracket, have undergone the stem cell treatment trials so far, 25 percent of whom had been under intensive care. “We did the first trial on April 4th and we are now close to completing the compilation of all needed data to perform more comparative trials.
“The more patients we can try the treatment on, the faster we will decide how efficient the treatment is. We will compare the conditions of the patients who’ve received the supportive treatment with those who have not received. Health and safety are always placed on top of our priorities. The next step will be toward applying the treatment on a larger scale,” she added.
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