Gulf countries have witnessed an increase in daily Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health reported an increase in Covid-19 cases reported compared to the previous month, as the lifting of some restrictions causes a looser attitude towards pandemics.
This week, health officials reported 323 cases in the community and 30 cases in travelers, according to official weekly figures. An average of 238 people recovered during the same period.
Last week’s daily average was 159 for the community and 19 for travelers.
On June 13th alone, a total of 443 cases were reported. This is a surge from the recently recorded high of 300 on March 1st. This has increased by 44% in the last few months, raising concerns across the community as to whether the country could face yet another wave just months after the Grand FIFA tournament.
Similarly, the number of people rushing to get tested after experiencing symptoms is skyrocketing, and the data show a total of 14,175 tests this week alone.
Despite the increase in numbers, no deaths were reported last week and the number of inpatients remains low.
Similarly, I wasn’t hospitalized in the ICU last week. This suggests that the current viral strains are relatively less severe than last year.
According to official figures, there are currently 2,664 active cases, but they continue to grow weekly.
Lifting restrictions
Last month, health officials further relaxed Covid-19 restrictions by removing mask mandates from most locations, including indoors.
Authorities also removed the requirement to force government and private sector unvaccinated employees to perform weekly rapid antigen testing, ending what many called a “rigorous” process. I did.
Prior to that, Doha also relaxed restrictions on people entering the country in preparation for the long-awaited tournament later this year, eliminating pre-testing requirements for all residents and quarantine obligations for visitors.
Visitors from some countries do not need to download Ehteraz.
It aims to triple the number of visitors to Qatar, increase the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to GDP to 12% by 2030, and open 50 new hotels by the end of 2022. Sources say it is part of the plan.
And that number is on track. Recent rules have led to an influx of visitors in the first quarter of 2022, with the country recording an almost seven-fold increase over the previous year.
According to new data, between January and March 2022, the total number of visitors reached 316,000, while the full-year figures for 2020 and 2021 were 581,000 and 611,000, respectively.
