By Tuqa Khalid

DUBAI -- The United Arab Emirates reported on Saturday eight new deaths and 561 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total tally up to 13,599 confirmed coronavirus cases and the death toll up to 119 fatalities.

The UAE also reported the recovery of 121 patients, bringing the total number of recovered coronavirus patients up to 2,664.

The authorities have been conducting an average of 29,000 coronavirus tests per day during the past two weeks, said Dr. Amna Al-Shamsi, the official spokesperson for the UAE Government.

Answering a question on why some people are more susceptible to COVID-19 infection, Dr. Alawi Al-Sheikh, the spokesman for the advanced science sector, said: “The human body have receptors that act like gates allowing certain material to enter human body.

At the respiratory system, these receptors are called ACE2 which allow the virus to enter. The virus that causes COVID-19 can latch onto the ACE2 receptor undetected. The adaptive immune system – the part that creates antibodies that help identify pathogens quickly – hasn’t had a chance to learn what SARS-CoV-2 looks like yet.”

“This means the virus can use a molecular phishing scam to sneak into the cell. The immunity system then doubles efforts to fight the virus, which in turn increases the infection symptoms and prolong the disease period.”

Coronavirus research

A team of researchers from the Research Institute of Medical & Health Sciences (RIMHS) at the University of Sharjah in collaboration with the medical team at the Mohammed Bin Rashid University Of Medicine and Health Sciences, are studying this issue.

"The study is focused on why COVID-19 spreads less among children comparatively with the elderly people and those suffering from chronic diseases. The study concluded that the children’s lung and nose cells have less receptors than those in the body of the elderly and that the limited number of these cells limit the spread of the disease among the minors who only exhibit mild symptoms if they happen to be infected," Al-Sheikh said.

The number of these receptors increase among smokers and those with respiratory diseases, the study found out.

"Another study by researchers from the Mohammed Bin Rashid University Of Medicine and Health Sciences and Al Jalila Children's Speciality Hospital along with Sharjah University have found out that these cells are larger in number among those suffering obesity," he added.

Khalifa University along with relevant authorities are working on a project to detect the existence of the virus in the sanitary water.

"The scheme is aimed at detecting the virus in an early stage in a way that supports the efforts made by research and development departments to assess the percentage and direction of the virus spread in the country," he explained. -- Al Arabiya English