Dubai authorities are in a hurry to turn the page on the Covid-19. Even though the number of deaths and contaminated people registered every day in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not weakening, the city-state, which is one of the two pillars of this federation with Abu Dhabi, has started the phase of deconfinement.
The 3.5 million inhabitants of the principality, the hub of commerce and tourism in the Middle East, recovered the right to move around the city during the day late last week. They had previously been subject to a full curfew, which they could only waive to get food every three days, and with the express permission of the police, issued via the Internet.
The gigantic malls, which are the pride of the emirate and attract millions of visitors each year, have been allowed to reopen their doors until 10 p.m., within a limit of 30% of their capacity, as have the restaurants, another of the local attractions. Boasting " Success " of Dubai in the fight against the Covid-19, the government welcomed that "The strict measures taken in the past three weeks (have) significantly helped to alleviate the crisis ".
The country is "hard pressed"
However, the epidemic shows no signs of ebbing in the United Arab Emirates. The number of cases discovered every day has passed the 500 mark and continues to increase, and the number of daily deaths has fluctuated between 3 and 8 for a week. In all, as of April 26, the SARS-Cov-2 had infected at least 10,300 people and caused 76 deaths in the UAE. These figures make it the second most affected country on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf after Saudi Arabia, where 17,500 cases and 139 deaths were reported that day.
Why, under these conditions, begin to deconfigure Dubai, the most populated city of the federation and which, as such, probably has the largest number of patients of Covid-19? Authorities highlight their vast testing capacity – around 30,000 per day. This large-scale screening would have enabled them to identify and isolate the main centers of infection, concentrated mainly in the areas where Asian workers live, who make up the bulk of the Dubai workforce.
But for foreign observers, economic calculations played as much if not more in the decision to ease the curfew than health considerations. "It’s the mercantile logic that prevails, Dubai is hard pressed", drops a western banker installed on the spot. The hypermodern metropolis, bristling with dizzying towers, which presents itself as the business eldorado, has struggled since the mid-2010s.
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