Doha: As the number of positive COVID-19 cases are on decline in the country, some physicians at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) have shared messages expressing hope and resilience.
In a series of video messages released in different languages, physicians have said that for more than a year now, the pandemic has tested the patience and resolve of people, but hope has been evoked with vaccination against COVID-19 and precautionary measures in place.
The messages published on HMC’s and Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) Twitter accounts convey, “With hope and resilience, we will win this battle together sooner rather than later.”
According to COVID-19 report issued by the Ministry, number of daily cases has decreased in the past ten days. While, 798 new cases were reported on April 23 and 646 new cases were reported yesterday.
The total number of patients recovered has increased by 14,090 between April 23 and May 2 from 178,461 to 192,551.
“Sickness, inability to socialize and loss of life have challenged us. We have pushed back and turned towards hope with vaccine which is both safe and effective and by following precautionary measures as social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks,” said Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Psychiatrist at HMC.
“We will turn light on this pandemic with hope and resilience ... we will win this situation,” he said in a message in English.
Meanwhile, the Ministry in its weekly update of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program said that 44.7% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
It said that 44.7% of the total population (16 years and above) has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
According to the report, 188,152 doses have been administered in the last seven days and a total of 1,603,913 doses administered since the start of the programme.
Also, 86% of people over 60 years of age have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among those over 70 years of age, 82.4% have received at least one dose and 80.7% of people above the age of 80 years have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
To recall, in an interview with Qatar TV on Saturday, Dr. Soha Al Bayat, Head of Vaccination at MoPH said that Qatar continues to impose COVID restrictions to curb the spread COVID-19 virus and that with a new threat of the emerging Indian variant, Qatar has also introduced mandatory quarantine procedures for travelers returning from specific countries.
“The number of new daily COVID cases has been declining steadily recently. This has led to a significant decrease in the number of people with COVID in hospital. The decline in the number of cases is a result of the current restrictions in place and the fast roll out of the vaccination program,” she said.
But Dr. Al Bayat also said, “It is still too early to be sure that we have overcome the second wave of the pandemic but if we all continue to adhere to the restrictions and follow the preventive measures, we will see a persistent fall in the number of cases.”
“We will ease the current restrictions only when we are sure that the threat of the disease has subsided,” she added.
