The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has issued updated flu vaccine guidelines ahead of flu season, directing all health professionals and facilities under its jurisdiction to check patients’ vaccination status at every clinical visit and encourage immunisation for high-risk groups. The authority’s Seasonal Influenza Guideline puts the annual global attack rate of seasonal influenza at 5–10% in adults and 20–30% in children, underlining why the DHA flu vaccine push targets specific populations before the season peaks. Who the DHA flu vaccine guidelines cover The DHA’s Clinical Guideline for Best Practice in Immunization identifies priority groups for vaccination when supply is limited:…
Author: Catherine Smith
Abu Dhabi falconry hunting rules have grown substantially stricter since the days when Mohamed Al Remeithi, now head of events at the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club, first went into the desert at age 13 with his grandfather and uncle, sleeping on the ground and travelling hundreds of kilometres without seeing another person. Where early trips into the Empty Quarter carried no formal structure, today’s licensed falconer operates within a regulated system that covers where, when and who may hunt, and what must happen to the birds they pursue. What the rules now require The traditional falconry hunting licence in Abu…
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has completed a package of Al Qiyadah Intersection upgrades on Al Ittihad Road, including a new lane, adjusted signals, and parking works, with the authority expecting peak-hour waiting times to fall by up to 15 per cent. The improvements target traffic travelling from Al Ittihad Road towards Abu Hail and Salah Al Din Streets, two of the main distributor roads serving Deira. What changed at Al Qiyadah Intersection The centrepiece of the scheme is a new left-turn lane from Al Ittihad Road onto Abu Hail Street in the direction of Salah Al Din Street.…
Artificial intelligence has cut the average time attackers need to move through a compromised network to 29 minutes, with the fastest recorded breach taking just 27 seconds, as cybersecurity experts warned UAE businesses at an annual security conference that the window for defending against intrusions is closing fast. The warning came at the third edition of FutureSec, held in Dubai, during a panel discussion titled ‘Cyber Resilience and Compliance Across the Digital Supply Chain’. Michel Tannous, manager of sales engineering at CrowdStrike, moderated the session. Panellists included Ali Khalid, head of data quality and enterprise analytics at a major airline;…
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) has launched Oqood 2.0, an upgraded property registration platform that guides applicants through transaction requirements before they submit, cutting the back-and-forth that has typically slowed off-plan sales approvals. The platform replaces the original Oqood portal, which DLD ran as a self-registration system for developers handling provisional, or off-plan, sales. Under that system, completing initial registration procedures took 6 business days, and developers paid a service fee of Dh1,000 plus 2% of the sale value from the seller and a further 2% from the purchaser, alongside knowledge and innovation fees of Dh10 each, according to the…
Dubai gold prices climbed Dh6.75 per gram on Thursday as renewed US-Iran fighting pushed investors toward safe-haven assets, then pulled them back out again on inflation and rate-hike fears. The 24K gold rate opened at Dh535 per gram, up from Dh528.25 at Wednesday’s close, according to Dubai market data. The 22K rate rose to Dh495.25, 21K to Dh475, 18K to Dh407, and 14K to Dh317.50 per gram. Globally, spot gold was trading at $4,431.78 per ounce, a gain of 1.43 per cent as of 9.10am Thursday. Silver was up 1.69 per cent at $65.97 per ounce. How US-Iran tensions are…
Dubai Central Laboratory has introduced a Dubai food label grading system that assigns an A-to-E rating to food products based on the accuracy of their nutritional data, giving shoppers a fast read of a label’s reliability at the point of purchase. The service runs laboratory tests on food products and scores each one on a graded classification. An A rating signals high accuracy in the stated nutritional information; an E signals the opposite. Manufacturers and suppliers can request testing before a product goes to market or after it is already on shelves. How the food label grading system works Dubai…
The UAE winter growing season calls for soil work, irrigation checks and nursery preparation in September, long before seeds go in the ground, according to Emirati farmer Ahmed Al Hafiti. Al Hafiti, who grows crops across varying terrain, said the groundwork laid now determines whether plants survive the months ahead. ‘Preparing the land and the soil is half of farming,’ he said. ‘Many people plant without paying enough attention to the condition of the soil and later wonder why their plants have died.’ Soil and land preparation for the UAE winter growing season Al Hafiti said land should be improved…
Dubai is on course to see 68,250 residential units delivered across 2026, combining the 11,650 homes handed over in the second quarter with the 56,600 units scheduled for completion during the remainder of the year, according to the Colliers Q2 2026 UAE Real Estate Market Report. The Q2 handovers comprised 9,200 apartments and 2,450 villas. Dubai remained the UAE’s largest source of new residential supply during the quarter. Dubai residential pipeline for 2026: most units already sold The scale of upcoming supply sits against an already well-absorbed pipeline. Gulf News, citing Dubai Land Department (DLD) data, reported that of the…
Schools across the UAE have reminded parents of illness rules requiring children with fever, vomiting or diarrhoea to stay home until they are well enough to return, as the 2026–27 academic year gets under way. A circular issued by one Dubai school sets a specific threshold: children must be fever-free for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication before coming back to class, and those who have had vomiting or diarrhoea must wait 48 hours after symptoms subside. Which symptoms require a child to stay home The Dubai circular lists the conditions that should keep a child at home: a…