COVID-19 infections have been rising significantly in recent weeks, in what experts have termed the third wave of the pandemic in Qatar. The surge, officials say, is fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19. January 12 saw the registration of over 4,200 new cases in 24 hours, while active cases in the country shot up to more than 31,000.
However, the government has been swift in its response to the new surge, efficiently handling the caseload and preserving the public health. Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, while chairing the Cabinet meeting yesterday, reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the country, and affirmed the continuation of the precautionary and preventive measures in place.
The government has reintroduced some restrictions like compulsory use of face masks in all public places, and reducing passenger capacity in public transport. The Ministry of Public Health has also increased the capacity at health facilities to deal with the caseload. Children, most of whom were not vaccinated against COVID-19, are also being infected by the virus in the latest surge, health officials have said. Though most Omicron cases exhibit only mild symptoms and don’t require hospitalisation, the Ministry has set up a dedicated facility for children requiring hospitalisation with COVID-19. The new facility called Al Maha Center under Al Wakra Hospital has the capacity of 50 beds in general conditions, 24 beds for medical observation and four beds in the ICU. The capacity can be enhanced to 140 beds if needed. Similarly, the Cuban hospital is dedicated to women requiring admission with COVID-19, while Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital has the highest capacity in its ICU for COVID-19 patients.
The Ministry of Public Health has made all the preparations to further enhance the bed capacity at hospitals if required. However, the data so far show that very few people infected with COVID-19 have required hospitalisation. Most show mild to moderate symptoms and are isolating at home.
The authorities have also expedited the booster shot rollout programme, having administered close to 0.4 million booster vaccine doses to date. Overall, Qatar has administered more than 5.3 million vaccine doses to date. The fact that all seven COVID-19 deaths taking place recently were the patients without even a single dose of vaccine makes it very obvious how important vaccination, including the booster shot, is against the COVID-19 infection.
