The UAE says it has tested more than 1 million people for coronavirus

The UAE had 9,800 confirmed cases on Friday, April 24.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
A member of medical staff wearing a protective face mask, works at an N95 face mask collection point, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the Cleveland Clinic hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, April 20, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/CHRISTOPHER PIKE)
A member of medical staff wearing a protective face mask, works at an N95 face mask collection point, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the Cleveland Clinic hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, April 20, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/CHRISTOPHER PIKE)
The United Arab Emirates said it had tested more than one million people for coronavirus as of Saturday night, it said. The country has led the Middle East in testing per capita since the pandemic outbreak began. It had already tested more than 500,000 by early April.
The UAE had 9,800 confirmed cases as of Friday, April 24, which makes it one of the hot spots of the Middle East. By contrast, Turkey has more than 100,000 cases and Iran has 88,000 official cases. Many believe the Iranian numbers to be low compared with the overall outbreak in the country. Saudi Arabia has recorded 15,000 cases. Qatar has 8,500 cases. Israel has more than 15,000.
Testing is not uniform throughout the Middle East. A few countries, including the UAE, Israel and Turkey, have conducted widespread testing. Bahrain also tried to ramp up testing, reaching 110,000 by April 24. Qatar had tested 73,000 by April 23. By contrast, Turkey has tested more than 650,000.
The Middle East is divided on approaches to fighting the pandemic. Many countries have not conducted widespread testing, and some countries are in the midst of war and cannot test or do much to confront the virus. This includes Syria, Libya and Yemen. In addition, there are concerns about the ability of Egypt and Algeria to deal with a widespread outbreak if things get worse. There were 4,092 recorded cases in Egypt, 3,127 in Algeria and 3,700 in Morocco at last count.