It has been exactly a year now since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in the United Arab Emirates, on January 29, 2020.

Little could any of us imagine then how a micro-organism would practically shut down the modern human civilisation. But great leaders of the UAE can steer people through the most astounding challenges — residents of the UAE have fortunately been guided by such leaders.

Twelve months later, the UAE residents have learned how to deal with a hitherto unimaginable situation and have acquired the kind of self-discipline that’ll stand them in good stead.

One of the things that helped the UAE navigate the crisis was the sense of community here, unlike the growing societal rifts in some other nations as the pandemic began to really bite.

In the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai: “In the UAE, people support each other like one family to overcome these exceptional circumstances that the world is currently facing. We are blessed to have this spirit of solidarity and a safe country.”

His Highness was speaking in early April 2020 while taking some Cabinet decisions on rapid crisis management.

As any family does in times of a crisis, people in the UAE quickly made adjustments: setting up work-from-home corners for educational and professional pursuits; revising their spending habits; and generally becoming more tech-savvy, innovative, and resilient about time, money, energy, space, and other resources.

The disease that arrived as a mystery and spread as a global nemesis — it was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization on February 12, 2020 — has far from decimated the spirit of the UAE; it has made the country even more cohesive and optimistic.