Doha: The third wave of COVID-19 fuelled by Omicron variant is expected to continue in Qatar for several weeks, said a health official.
“We expect that the third wave will continue for several weeks and we have not reached its peak yet,” said Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19, Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal.
Speaking on a Qatar TV programme yesterday, Dr. Khal, who is also Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), said that the third wave is expected to reach the peak in the coming weeks after recording a likely large number of infections in the country like the rest of the world.
“The Omicron variant is highly contagious, about six times more, compared to Delta variant,” said Dr. Al Khal. He urged people to take the booster shots as soon as possible to protect themselves and others from the pandemic.
He said that the third wave in Qatar began about two weeks ago, however the cases started increasing since mid of October.
“We implemented many preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Qatar during past two years during previous waves. The preventive measures found effective against the pandemic in saving lives of a large number of people,” said Dr. Al Khal.
Al Khal said that the high rate of vaccination, recording 85 percent in Qatar, helped in tackling the third wave of COVID-19 in the country and maintaining very good situation. “Had the immunity of community not been at present high levels, there would have been severe infection rate in the country.”
So far, he said, Qatar has administered booster doses to over 300,000 people which is a good number. “Now the booster shots are seeing high demands from people. With fast administrating of booster doses and opening of new dedicated center for vaccination, the number of vaccinated people will increase significantly in coming days.”
“Despite third wave with highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, in most of the cases the symptoms are between mild and moderate.
“This is because of the high immunity/antibodies in the community due to large number of vaccinations and impact of the variant itself as it causes upper respiratory tract infection.”
However, Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal said, the people should not take it lightly in complying with preventive measures as the the new variant can infect severely to people with chronic diseases, elderly and even some youth.
“The decisions issued by the Cabinet will help alleviating the severity of the third wave of coronavirus.”
To a question about travelling in this situation, he said that such waves take place during winter as the season helps spreading diseases related to respiratory system. “That is way we would like to advise people to drop the idea of travelling to those countries witnessing spike in coronavirus cases,” advised Dr. Al Khal.
