Saif Mohammed Arhama Al Shamsi, Deputy Director-General of the National Emergency and Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, speaks at IGCF 2020 in Sharjah on Thursday.

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

UAE is well prepared to handle the situation in case of COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The government may even introduce new laws to protect the UAE’s citizens and residents from coronavirus, said a top government official.

Saif Mohammed Arhama Al Shamsi, Deputy Director-General of the National Emergency and Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA), made this announcement while speaking at the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2020) in Sharjah on Thursday.

“UAE’s robust healthcare systems and humanitarian outlook are equipped to handle Coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

Al Shamsi also said that if it was deemed necessary, new laws could come be enforced to protect the UAE’s citizens and residents from coronavirus (COVID-19), which has affected over 90,000 people worldwide.

“It may be necessary, for example, for people to work from home for a certain period and we may need to bring this in to law. It wouldn’t necessarily effect all companies,” he said, “but it would effect some.”

He also stressed on the need to communicate clearly and calmly while countering false information and panic.

He added, “We don’t want to think about Coronavirus but this is a good example to demonstrate how we communicate in a crisis. Firstly, we monitor and assess the situation. Within days, we were monitoring the situation minute by minute. This is clearly not just a problem for us but for every country. Each country is working on how to communicate critical information at this time regarding citizens’ safety. This is an international matter and every country is dealing with it, responding appropriately and working on keeping their societies secure.”

Al Shamsi added, “We also ensure that our message is cohesive, so each ministry and agency are not giving differing information. The Minister of Health has declared we must have transparency in our communication about this crisis and to that I would add credibility too. We must avoid rumour and scaremongering. We will work with facts, and take it step by step, working with other agencies.”

The Ministry of Education has ordered all educational institutions in the country to remain closed for one month to avoid COVID-19 outbreak. Various schools and universities are planning to implement robust programmes for distance learning to ensure minimal disruption to studies.