The increase in number of new COVID-19 cases and in the number of people hospitalized every week, a matter of concern as it may be signs of a new wave of the pandemic in Qatar, said Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation.
He was addressing a televised press conference held to announce the new developments related to COVID-19 in the country.
According to Dr. Al Khal, across the world many countries are now experiencing second or third waves of the virus which are stronger than their first waves that happened during 2020.
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“Over the past month in Qatar we have seen a gradual and consistent increase in the number of new daily infections. Additionally, and of great concern, is the increase since mid-December in both the number of people with COVID-19 in hospital and the number of people in ICU,” he said.
Dr. Al Khal further said:
The data over the next few days and week will tell us more, but these increases appear to be the early signs of a potential second wave in Qatar.
For this reason, it is more important than ever that people adhere to preventive measures to cut off second wave before it gains momentum.
If numbers of positive cases and hospital admissions continue to increase over the coming week or two, additional restrictions may need to be implemented across the country and we will return to some of the early restriction phases
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I ask everyone to follow the preventive recommendations: Wear a mask as advised; maintain social distancing; avoid large gatherings of people; and wash your hands regularly.
Today, we reached a significant milestone in administering the fifty thousandth Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Qatar.
This is a wonderful achievement and a significant step forward knowing that many of our most vulnerable members of the community are now becoming more protected against COVID-19.
We were clear from the outset that we only wanted to administer an internationally approved, safe and effective vaccine for the people of Qatar and while this meant that we had to start our vaccination program after some other countries around the world, we are confident that our decision was in the best interests of Qatar’s population.
