Coronavirus: UAE says mothers with young children can work from home

Female public sector employees in the UAE who have children in grade six or younger are allowed to work from home so that they can continue to monitor their children during e-learning classes, announced the Federal Authority for Government and Human Resources (FAHR) via WAM on Friday.

All public sector employees had been sent home by the UAE authorities earlier this year amid widespread government lockdown measures designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but employees have since returned to the workplace.

Schools were also closed with a program of e-learning put in place. While schools are now set to reopen next week, not all students need return, with regulatory bodies allowing parents to decide whether their child should go to school or not.

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The new decision was taken “to ensure balance between meeting business requirements and helping families fulfil the requirements of distance education for their children due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that supports the education drive in line with the directives of the UAE leadership,” WAM reported.

On Friday, the UAE confirmed 390 new cases of coronavirus infection, bringing the country’s total up to 68,901. The number of new infections was less than Thursday’s 491 cases, the highest daily increase announced since early July.

Earlier this month, an Emirati official said the re-implementation of an overnight curfew would be possible in some areas of the UAE if the number of infections continued to rise.

The UAE first installed a nationwide curfew in mid-March, and officially removed it on June 24.

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