Acting Chairman of HMC’s Intensive Care Units, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed, and Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of the Infectious Diseases Division, Dr. Abdulatif Al Khal, at the press conference, yesterday.
Doha: The weekly rate of COVID-19 infections in Qatar has increased four times compared to cases reported in January this year.
“The number of local cases of COVID-19 infection has increased significantly during the past weeks. The infection has reached to all age groups of the community,” said Dr. Abdulatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of the Infectious Diseases Division at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
Addressing a press conference on Qatar TV yesterday. Dr. Al Khal said that the infection rate increased in all age groups including senior citizens which indicates the spread of infection among family members, most probably due to visits, meetings and occasional gatherings.
“The weekly infections rate of severe cases which need hospital admissions increased three times compared to cases recorded in January this year,” said Dr. Al Khal. He said that the critical cases which need ICU admissions increased three times compared to the rate noted in January 2021.
“The daily infection rate of COVID-19 is big as large numbers of cases are being taken for treatment, many of them are being admitted in hospitals, some of them needed admissions in ICU,” said Dr. Al Khal.
He said that 12 percent population of Qatar, above 16 years, received at least first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. So far, over 45 percent school staff has received the vaccine, he added.
“Over 70 percent healthcare workers at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and over 67 percent working with Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) have received vaccines,” said Dr. Al Khal.
He said that the vaccines will also be provided to healthcare workers of private hospitals and clinics from next week.
He said that the danger of COVID-19 will continue until the end of this year and in case of spike in the cases of infection during coming period more restrictions could be imposed.
“The Ministry of Public Health has sped up efforts in implementing the National Programme for Vaccination and we hope that by summer a big percentage of Qatar’s population would have been vaccinated,” said Dr. Al Khal, adding that as vaccine does not affect on fasting so the people should take the vaccine on time on their turn.
“Qatar’s strict quarantine policy for returning travellers enabled to delay the introduction of new variants into this country for several months but we are now seeing positive COVID-19 cases in the region and in Qatar with the new variant known as B.1.1.7 (UK strain).”
He said that this new variant is much more contagious and spreads more easily between people compared to the previous strain and may be associated with increased severity of disease. “The good news is that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are effective against new variants,” said Dr. Al Khal.
He said that over 380,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered since the start of COVID-19 National Vaccination Program, with more than 15,000 doses being administered a day at present.
He said that registration for vaccination has begun for Imams, muezzins and other staff of mosques.
He said that the pace of the vaccination programme means that there is finally hope of a gradual return to normal for us here in Qatar and people around the world. “But this will not happen in the next few weeks or months,” said Dr. Al Khal.
“COVID-19 will continue to be a threat to our health for the most part of 2021 and until all eligible members of our population have been vaccinated, we must continue to follow the preventive measures,” said Dr. Al Khal.
Acting Chairman of HMC’s Intensive Care Units, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed said due to increase in COVID-19 cases in the first part of this year significant increase is being witnessed in both hospital admissions and ICU admissions in recent weeks. “Every day we are seeing more people being admitted to hospital and ICU requiring life-saving treatment,” said Dr. Mohammed, adding “Since February 1, we have seen around a 110% increase in people receiving care in ICU.”
He said that this is concerning as many of these people are severely sick and require intensive treatment and advanced respiratory support. “Despite the large increase in hospital and ICU admissions, the healthcare sector is able to care for each and every one of these patients,” said Dr. Mohammed.
“At the start of the pandemic last year, we had a plan to significantly expand bed capacity across our hospital system to meet increased demand due to COVID-19. To meet the increased demand due to recent spike in cases, we have once again developed a capacity expansion plan to ensure we have enough beds for people needing care.”
