The UAE has effectively implemented the test, treat and vaccinate strategy to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and it is going strong even now.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world last year, the impact was felt across several countries, communities, businesses and individuals. Since no vaccine or cure was in sight, relevant authorities across countries scrambled their efforts to enhance safety measures, lockdowns and curfews to limit the movement of people as well as virus. According to WHO (World Health Organization), a global health crisis had hit and the life people once knew of came to a sudden halt.

Various sections of society joined in the national efforts to curb the spread of the virus. It is important to underline that technology saved the day with remote work starting across key sectors and numerous interpretations of the dire situation were experienced by the public.

Coronavirus came a threat to humanity and its progress in various areas including infrastructure, public health and economy. A number of countries including New Zealand decided to shut themselves out completely with the aim of bringing their cases down to zero while other government such as Sweden planned to fight it through herd immunity without a vaccine and reported a rise in number of infections.

The UAE emerged as one of the success models in walking the middle path while focusing on early recovery and waiting for preventive vaccine at the same time. According to experts, there was hope in all three instances. However, it was only the UAE's model against COVID-19 that achieved success against COVID-19 while rapidly returning to business and normal life.

Authorities creating positive awareness about living with the pathogens in the correct way without letting it affect the daily routine. Relevant entities highlighted that delaying the resumption of work in offices and public activity would have risked crashing the economy in the economy. Therefore, they called for gradual resumption of economic activities with people returning to their work and public activities taking place in a phased manner.

Even as infections remained high, the health sector of the UAE was able to handle the cases in the early months of the phased reopening of economic activities. Hospitals handled the flow of patients and ensured the provision of adequate medical supplies and state-of-the-art healthcare facilities to deal with emergencies. As soon as the vaccines were developed, the UAE ensured swift actions in rolling out the nationwide vaccination drive to immunize maximum number of people in the country.

Now, the UAE is witnessing a significant decline in new COVID-19 infections with the help of its test, treat and vaccinate strategy. For the first time in 18 months, the UAE has reported less than 100 new infections. The people of the UAE have also helped in the national efforts to curb the spread of the virus. It is important for people to embrace the lifestyle changes aimed at containing the spread of the virus and facilitate sustainable recovery in the country.