You can’t get away from COVID-19 right now.

Every media publication in the world is shouting about it. We’ve been covering the news here in Dubai for weeks and on Wednesday night, the World Health Organisation took the decision to declare it as a pandemic. Then, Tom Hanks announced he and his wife have it, and it’s gone truly global.

Internationally, people are panic buying sanitizer and toilet paper and towns are on lockdown. Headlines are scary, summing the 126,000 confirmed cases.

But what about the high recovery rate? I want to read about the 68,000 recoveries, which is over half of the confirmed cases. (Here in the UAE, there are 74 confirmed cases, with 17 recoveries.)

Recommended

Abu Dhabi Bans Parties And Gatherings With Immediate EffectDubai Discloses Which Is The ‘Best Vaccine’ For Residents To Choose FromPhilippines Finally Lifts Travel Ban On The UAE Along With 30 Other Countries 

Let’s pay the same high level of attention to the recoveries, as to the new cases

The US has taken the decision to ban mainland flights from Europe to the States for one month

While here in the UAE, I applaud the government for taking a measured approach.

Closing schools (actually, they simply brought forward the school break and introduced two weeks of distance learning) is a move felt by parents, teachers and students but in the grand scheme, it was made in the best interest of student education and will do a massive job of curbing the spread of the virus.

People are advised not to travel, which is a scary thought for a majority expat city, but overall the general approach from the authorities is doing the exact opposite of fear-mongering, by sharing sound advice, dispelling social media rumours (there are SO many) and offering prevention tips.

I like the fact that I haven’t seen empty supermarket shelves in the UAE. I like that for the most part, people are carrying on. We are in an unknown, a limbo period, waiting to see if it will get worse, or get better. But I find reassurance from the fact that all my basic questions have been answered by authorities.

Like, “should I go out in public?”

Or, “can I still order food?”

Let’s just make sure we’re not missing bigger tricks

I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of the situation. But at the rate COVID-19 spreads, it’s likely the news will run well into 2020. But does that mean it should dominate headlines for the rest of the year? Please, no.

So, ICYMI, in other big news Abu Dhabi announced it wants to be single-use plastic free by 2021 (this is HUGE!) and 4,000-year-old human bones were discovered in RAK (4,000 years old, that’s incredible!)

So, hype over. Lovin Dubai is working to bring you balanced COVID-19 reporting only, featuring the confirmed updates shared by the authorities, that they want you to know about.

LISTEN: Hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to get Dubai news every morning