Dubai COVID19 Lockdown - How the Government is Handling it

How is your national and local government addressing the concerns arising with today’s pandemic issues? It’s been a month since the start of the quarantine in the city of Dubai and the epidemic is still continuously occurring, leaving its leaders, citizens, and workers clueless on when this tragic situation will end and what does the future holds not just for their city but for the whole country as well. So How’s Dubai Covid19 lockdown?

The pandemic disease COVID-19 has caused panic across the globe that dramatically affected the economic status. It hasn’t just affected nations but also the families and individuals where the majority of its workers are having a hard time finding no other means of income to sustain their daily needs. The majority of businesses have stopped temporarily their company’s operations and to make things much worse, others have permanently lost their jobs due to the health crisis resulting to country’s economic problems.

Scientists have been continuously conducting studies on how to cure and fight the deadly disease that originated from China, but this has yet to be resolved. Global leaders have implemented strict protocols for their residents to abide due to the airborne disease’s capacity to easily spread from one person to another. Dubai, as United Arab Emirate’s business district and largest city, along with other countries has undoubtedly implemented strict rules to somehow control the increase of the infected individuals.

Dubai’s Response

Dubai’s response to the situation is by implementing a quarantine. It will require the city’s residents and foreign workers to apply for an online police permit every time they have to leave their houses during the pandemic, regardless of their reasons. Even going to a grocery store and emergencies are not exempted from securing a quarantine permit.

The online application system requires people to state their valid reason for going outside of their houses. People have to fill in the details like their nationality, job, phone number, ID number, car license plate number for those who are driving, the specific location of their destination and they even have to provide an outline of their schedule of activity and the time that they leave and return home.

The system then sends an SMS regarding their application status with the scheduled timeslot to run errands. The city of Emirati has already banned outdoor activities and Dubai is the only city in UAE that is strictly enforcing this rule due to its high number of confirmed cases. The Emirati City’s Ministry of Health and Prevention expressed their sincerest condolences to its most recent deaths to the families of two Asian ex-pats who tested positive for COVID-19 and died due to complications. Both of the deceased had prior chronic illnesses that complicated their ability to resist the virus.

The city has revealed that they have conducted more than 49,000 new COVID-19 tests involving various segments of society that includes UAE citizens and residents using the latest state-of-the-art-technology in line with the MoHAP’s plans to intensify virus screenings to bring the novel virus under control. The accelerated investigative and check-up measures resulted in the detection of 370 new cases of coronavirus of various nationalities, all of who, are in stable condition and receiving necessary care.

Due to the current circumstances, the permit that is issued by Dubai’s government and National Police is only valid for a single pass that demands residents to re-apply for a new permit for every outdoor trip during the day. The pass can be applied as a permit for either personal reasons or work-related concerns. The rule has been strictly enforced by the city’s police department for which whoever violates the protocol will face serious legal actions.

People are also advised to show proof of evidence of their permit along with printed receipts of their purchased items, in case confronted by the authorities. For those who are working in the health and food sector, they can go out and do their respective jobs by securing a letter from their employers allowing them to move around the city to perform their respective tasks as part of their duty.

Residents’ application is hard to grant, unless they have justifiable reasons such as medical appointments, buying groceries and medical supplies. The applicant must state his reason at the system in case of emergency, but the government did not specify which instances are defined as an emergency circumstance. According to Brigadier Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, Director of the Traffic Department at Dubai Police, because of the existing 1,200 limit for online application permit per minute which sometimes experiences delay in issuance of permit due to the volume of applicants, an alternative hotline where people can call to apply for permission is also made available.