Combating coronavirus: Dubai Police receive over 500k calls in one month

UAE - A total of 553,406 phone calls were attended to during the National Sterilisation Programme by the Command and Control Centre of the Dubai Police, according to a top official.

Colonel Turki bin Faris, director of the centre, said the emergency number 999 received 432,477 calls while the 901 non-emergency number received 120,960 calls from March 26 to April 28. "The majority of these phone calls were inquiries related to precautionary and preventive measures put in place by Dubai and the movement permit. The centre received a record 52,000 phone calls in a single day immediately after the launch of the movement permit system."

Col Faris said callers could be grouped under two main types. "The first constituted employees in the public and private sectors. Key questions they asked were related to commuting to work, getting a movement permit, the number of passengers allowed in a car and requirements to wear masks and gloves. The second type of callers asked questions about precautionary measures, and movement permits for shopping and movement within their own area," he said.

He added that while the number of calls on precautionary and preventive measures increased, calls to report criminal and traffic violations decreased significantly.