Tag Archives: health
Fire sweeps Sharjah tower
Fire sweeps Sharjah tower Afkar Abdullah / 21 July 2013 In yet another residential Sharjah blaze, a fire has partially gutted a 30-storey building leaving about 30 residents homeless and damaging nearby cars. The fire, which tore through the whole block in Al Hudah Tower started around 8.45am and took firefighters about an hour to get it under control, Sharjah Civil Defence Director-General Brigadier Abdullah Saeed Al Suwaidi said. “Firefighters arrived at the scene in less than five minutes and went about evacuating the residents through the building…(before) efforts were made to put out the blaze and control it from spreading to other blocks.” The fire started on the third floor and spread up to the 30th floor, leaving a long trail of damage up one side of the building. Five cars parked outside were also partly burnt by the flying debris caused by the blaze. Thankfully there were no fatalities or injuries reported, Al Suwaidi said. The blaze is the first big residential fire to be reported in the emirate this summer, with the emirate notorious for big residential fires such as those that gutted Al Baker Tower, which displaced 125 families last January. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
UAE allays Mers fears
UAE allays Mers fears Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 20 July 2013 The Ministry of Health has said the deadly Sars-like coronavirus has not become a ‘public health emergency’ at the moment though four new cases have been detected in the UAE and two more in Saudi Arabia. There is no need for imposing any travel restrictions at this time, the ministry said, citing World Health Organisation’s latest updates. The ministry said it was following all latest updates regarding the new virus called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers-CoV) with the WHO. It confirmed that the virus was not a concern for public health at the moment as the detected cases globally continued to be very low. It reiterated that the current situation did not require a travel ban to any country in the world, nor screenings at different ports, or restrictions on trade. The MoH praised the cooperation and coordination among all health authorities in the country to follow up the situation and safeguard public health. Four healthcare workers in Abu Dhabi who took care of the first coronavirus patient in the country were identified as those recently infected with the coronavirus. According to the WHO, the medical personnel were from two hospitals in the emirate that treated the 82-year-old Emirati man. In two cases, a 28-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, did not develop symptoms of (Mers-CoV), while the other two, women aged 30 and 40, had mild upper respiratory symptoms and are in a stable condition. They are all now in isolation. State news agency Wam reported on Thursday that the four new cases were as a result of the screening of the first patient. “We screened 136 from the first contact and we found four positive,” Health Authority — Abu Dhabi (Haad) customer service and corporate communications director Dr Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi said. The individuals screened included medical staff and family members of the patient. In addition to the four new cases in the UAE, two were also reported in Saudi Arabia, where the illness is thought to have originated and the most victims and fatalities have occurred. The WHO said both victims, from the Asir region, had mild symptoms but were not hospitalised. The first is a 26-year-old man who was in close contact with a previously laboratory-confirmed case and the second case is a 42-year-old female healthcare worker. This brought the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases of Mers infection to 88, including 45 deaths. The WHO advised healthcare providers to “maintain vigilance” and urged facilities caring for patients with suspected or confirmed Mers to take “appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients, healthcare workers and visitors”. olivia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Pipe burst floods mall area
Pipe burst floods mall area Nivriti Butalia / 20 July 2013 Weekend plans to visit Ibn Batuta Mall were severely disrupted for some by a water pipe that burst on Thursday and was still causing problems on Friday evening — leaving hundreds of motorists trapped in traffic. The burst pipe released a torrent of water that submerged cars, stranded visitors and rendered the main road unusable, when it was unleashed about 9.30pm on Thursday. At 3.30pm on Friday, there was a line of at least 100 cars on the way to Ibn Batuta. Exit 25 of Shaikh Zayed Road was a congested mess, with cars along the right-most lanes turning towards the Gardens and Jebel Ali village coming to an almost standstill, while traffic on the other three lanes on the left were zipping along as usual. Discovery Gardens resident Ruel Pableo, who was stuck in the congestion for almost half-an-hour, said the main road exiting Discovery Gardens, next to the mall, was still flooded. Police had cordoned off the main road with police tape, rerouting traffic through to the second exit — a much narrower and indirect thoroughfare. “Most people didn’t know what was going on, because it happened so late at night.” He said it was just like a “morning rush” on a Friday afternoon. He could still see some of the remaining water on the main road from the incident that happened a day before. A trip that would usually take 10 minutes took him more than three times the duration because the route was much more indirect. Although the mall had issued no formal statement, there were fewer cars in the parking lot on Friday. Two of the mall security guards told Khaleej Times that while there was definitely no rush at all, this may or may not have been due to the floods. One of the guards, who left work at 1am, said when he got on to the road on his way back home to Ghusais, he felt he was “on an island — there was that much water everywhere. It’s an unusual sight in these parts”. On his way to work on Friday morning, the company bus had to take a different route to reach the mall. Taxi drivers were heard refusing to ferry customers along the stretch of Shaikh Zayed Road that involved exits 25 and 27, advising people instead to use the trains and save time otherwise doomed to be spent on the road in traffic. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority VP — Marketing and Corporate Communications Khawla Al Mehairi said the flooding was due to a “breakage” in one of the lines. “However, we responded fast and the matter was under control. The main cause is still unknown and the matter is under investigation. However, the water services supply is not impacted because our system is very reliable and the area won’t suffer from any water shortage.” When contacted for further detail, an authority spokesman refused but said more information would be forthcoming once the investigation had been conducted. nivriti@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
