H E Lolwah bint Rashid bin Mohammed Al Khater, Spokesperson of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management. Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula.
Qatar has taken a number of precautionary and other measures in the meeting of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management to control the spread of COVID-19 yesterday.
A series of decisions have been made as a result of a meeting of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management chaired by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said H E Lolwah bint Rashid bin Mohammed Al Khater, Spokesperson of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management at a press conference.
The decisions included inbound flights management, education, public transportation, economic and financial sector. Al Khater called on all sectors and institutions in the country, citizens and residents to cooperate and adhere to all measures and take all necessary precautions to overcome the situation.
Al Khater who was announcing the decisions of the committee said: “All flights to Doha will be suspended for 14 days, staring from Wednesday March 18, with an exemption of transit flights, cargo and Qatari citizens. The decision will be reviewed after analysing the situation.” She added that Qatari citizens coming from any destination will be subjected to 14-day quarantine.
She also said that public transportation in Qatar was suspended from 10pm last night, for both Karwa buses and Metro.
“The decisions regarding education sectors and distance learning will be activated at public and private schools and universities starting from March 22.”
H E Al Khater said that the decisions also include allowing the employees over the age of 55, pregnant women, and people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease, and blood pressure, to work from home.
According to Al Khater, a package of incentives for economic and financial sector is the most important decision taken by the committee.
“The most important component of decisions is the economic and financial decisions, which are unprecedented never done by the other countries. QR75bn will be injected into the private sector; a number of sectors will be exempted from paying electricity and water bills,” she said.
"Small and medium businesses will be exempted from a number of things. Also, QR10bn will be injected to the stock exchange,” she added.
Al Khater also asked the citizens and residents of Qatar to avoid travel during the coming period.
Responding a question, H E Al Khater said that Qatari students studying outside the country are advised to follow the policies in place in the country of study and Qatar embassies will provide any necessary services.
Saleh Al Khulaifi, Assistant Undersecretary for Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, Co-Chair of the National Epidemic Preparation Committee, were also present at the press conference.
Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, said in response to a question about the newly discovered cases, that the new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) that were announced earlier yesterday, the number of 64 cases, the vast majority of whom are workers who are now subject to quarantine, indicating that the Ministry is currently conducting checks for contacts of these cases.
He noted that all currently infected cases are in very good health and do not show any sick symptoms except for some cases that show slight symptoms and that all of them receive full medical care in the health isolation.
Dr. Al Khal said that the vast majority of the detected cases did not show symptoms of the disease due to early detection or that they had mild symptoms such as a slight rise in temperature, and he expected the announcement of the recovery of more cases to be added to the four cases whose recovery was announced yesterday.
He urged all Qatari students abroad to fully adhere to the health guidelines in the countries in which they study in the event that the study is continuing, while the option remains to stay or not for the students if studies were suspended in the countries in which they are present. He added that they will be subjected to quarantine in the event of return for a period of 14 days.
With regard to economic decisions, Assistant Undersecretary for Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Saleh Al Khulaifi, said that the implementation of the decisions will start from the date of their issuance, noting that some private quarters had started implementing the decisions in advance in a step that they deserve to thank.
