The UAE ambulance service was flooded by fake calls and general inquiries, receiving 40 percent such calls in the first quarter of this year.
The National Ambulance officials have said that 40 per cent of the 44,459 calls on the emergency number 998 were fake reports and general inquiries.
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Ambulance officials have appealed to the public not to waste public resources and call only for emergency cases requiring urgent medical intervention.
At the Ambulance service even requests like a resident requesting for eye drops or people informing about lack of money for hiring a taxi to the hospital were also received. A woman called at 998 to say she felt fatigued.
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The reports in the last two years at the operations centers nearly doubled compared to the monthly average number prior to the COVID-19.
Prior to the pandemic, call operators handled 6,763 monthly calls on average and the number increased to 18,537 a month in 2021.
