The Pandemic is still present in society and has the ability to spread rapidly and one infected person could transmit the infection to all members of the same family, said Dr Hamad Al Romaihi, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control at the Public Health Department and co-chair of the National Pandemic Preparation Committee said during a press conference held today.
All precautions must be taken to prevent infection - keep social distancing and wear masks when leaving the house, he added.
The important points from Dr Romaihi:
• At MOPH our surveillance team continues to track and trace all cases to identify potential new cases and gain an understanding of how the virus was transmitted
• We continue to see examples of people ignoring the preventive measures, resulting in one or even multiple positive cases within families and contacts
• Our tracing system has shown on many occasions how young and healthy people have ignored social and physical distancing and this has led to them contracting the virus and passing it on to family members.
Despite the overall numbers being encouraging we are seeing an increase in the number of cases within the Qatar and expat professional community, where we have high numbers of elderly and people with chronic conditions. We are at a critical time for these people and unless we adhere to strict preventive measures we could see cases, and ultimately deaths, increasing in our most vulnerable people
• No member of society should be complacent - though the risk of serious symptoms is low for young and healthy people, they can easily be carriers of the virus and pass it on to contacts who are elderly or have chronic conditions
• Everyone has a role to play in the lifting of restrictions and protecting the elderly and people with chronic conditions
