Tribune News Network
Doha
Additional COVID-19 restrictions may be imposed across the country if infections continue to increase, a senior Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) official has said.
"If the number 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,” Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19, said during a press conference on Thursday.
He said, "Recently, we have seen a gradual and consistent increase in the number of new daily infections. Additionally, which is of great concern, is the recent increase in both the number of people with COVID-19 in hospital and the number of people in ICU. 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.
He blamed the public indifference to preventive measures for a recent surge in new infections. "The number of daily cases, which had been hovering around 200, has now crossed 300. The cases have almost ‘doubled’ in the past few weeks,” he said, adding that the number of COVID-19 patients needing hospitalisation has also been increasing over the past three weeks.
He said the situation is leading to more people requiring intensive care treatment.
Dr Al Khal said wedding and public gatherings were found to have played a part in the resurgence of COVID-19 infection in Qatar.
Dr Al Khal advised people to be very cautious as many countries are now experiencing second or third waves of the virus which are stronger than their first waves that happened during 2020.
"It is more important than ever that people adhere to preventive measures to contain the second wave before it gains momentum. 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,” he said.
On a positive note, Dr Al Khal said, Qatar has so far administered 50,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
"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,” he said.
Dr Al Khal said, "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 programme after some other countries around the world, we are confident that our decision was in the best interests of Qatar’s population.”
He said Qatar is committed to providing COVID-19 vaccine to all citizens and residents in the country before the end of 2021.
For his part, Dr Hamad Al Romaihi, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control at the Public Health Department, said, "Our vaccination campaign strategy will enable everyone who needs to be vaccinated to do so in 2021, but for now we must prioritise people most at risk from severe complications from the virus.”
"Our strategy for the COVID vaccination campaign — the biggest vaccination campaign ever to be delivered in Qatar — is made up of four phases throughout 2021,” he added.
Dr Al Romaihi, who is also Co-chair of the National Pandemic Preparation Committee, said, "Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic the Ministry of Public Health and key government partners have been closely working with several leading pharmaceutical companies around the world who were in advanced stages of developing vaccines against COVID-19. This proactive approach to securing a COVID-19 vaccine proved very effective and two agreements were signed — with Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna.”
He said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first of these two be given FDA approval and on December 21 Qatar received its first shipment.
"As with all countries across the world, we are currently faced with limited supplies of vaccines from Pfizer/BioNtech as they work to meet global demand. We have now received several shipments of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines and we are due to receive weekly deliveries throughout February,” he pointed out.
He said, "In the next 10 days we expect to receive the first delivery of Moderna vaccines. While this will be a very limited quantity, this is an encouraging development and we can expect regular, larger deliveries of both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to arrive from early March.”
"From March onwards we will have significantly greater quantities of vaccines available to us and be able to greatly expand our output,” he said.
Dr Mariam Abdulmalik, Managing Director of Primary Health Care Corporation, said there were no serious side effects of the vaccine.
"In the first few weeks of the campaign our medical teams have carefully monitored all patients following their vaccinations as this essential to check for possible side effects. As with any vaccination we have seen a small number of mild side effects, mainly soreness at the site of the injection. However, we have not seen any serious side effects directly related to the vaccine among patients receiving either the first or second dose of the vaccine.”
She said from the January 13th onwards thousands of people began receiving their second dose of the vaccine.
"With operations running smoothly we expanded the vaccination campaign across 27 health centres across Qatar. This has boosted our capacity to administer vaccines and as more vaccines become available to us in Qatar, we will continue to increase output,” she said.
Dr Abdulmalik continued, "As we progress through the phases of the campaign, and larger quantities of the vaccine become available to us in Qatar, we will continue to increase the number of vaccines we administer every week.”
"Patients who are eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1 selected are being contacted directly by phone/SMS to advise them of their selection for the vaccine and invited to attend an appointment at one of the health centers,” she added.
She said a recent advance is the launch of a new MoPH online system for people to register their interest in receiving COVID-19 vaccine.
"People registering their desire to get the vaccine online and who meet the criteria for the first priority groups will be given earlier appointments to take the vaccines. People who register via the online page but who are not in one of the listed priority groups, will have their interest recorded and saved by the MOPH, and they will be contacted when they become eligible,” she said, adding that "following the launch of the online vaccine registration, more than 90,000 people have registered their interest.”
She said, "As more vaccines become available to us in Qatar, this registration form will provide a valuable resource for us to contact people who wish to receive the vaccine as early as possible.”
Doha
Additional COVID-19 restrictions may be imposed across the country if infections continue to increase, a senior Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) official has said.
"If the number 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,” Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19, said during a press conference on Thursday.
He said, "Recently, we have seen a gradual and consistent increase in the number of new daily infections. Additionally, which is of great concern, is the recent increase in both the number of people with COVID-19 in hospital and the number of people in ICU. 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.
He blamed the public indifference to preventive measures for a recent surge in new infections. "The number of daily cases, which had been hovering around 200, has now crossed 300. The cases have almost ‘doubled’ in the past few weeks,” he said, adding that the number of COVID-19 patients needing hospitalisation has also been increasing over the past three weeks.
He said the situation is leading to more people requiring intensive care treatment.
Dr Al Khal said wedding and public gatherings were found to have played a part in the resurgence of COVID-19 infection in Qatar.
Dr Al Khal advised people to be very cautious as many countries are now experiencing second or third waves of the virus which are stronger than their first waves that happened during 2020.
"It is more important than ever that people adhere to preventive measures to contain the second wave before it gains momentum. 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,” he said.
On a positive note, Dr Al Khal said, Qatar has so far administered 50,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
"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,” he said.
Dr Al Khal said, "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 programme after some other countries around the world, we are confident that our decision was in the best interests of Qatar’s population.”
He said Qatar is committed to providing COVID-19 vaccine to all citizens and residents in the country before the end of 2021.
For his part, Dr Hamad Al Romaihi, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control at the Public Health Department, said, "Our vaccination campaign strategy will enable everyone who needs to be vaccinated to do so in 2021, but for now we must prioritise people most at risk from severe complications from the virus.”
"Our strategy for the COVID vaccination campaign — the biggest vaccination campaign ever to be delivered in Qatar — is made up of four phases throughout 2021,” he added.
Dr Al Romaihi, who is also Co-chair of the National Pandemic Preparation Committee, said, "Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic the Ministry of Public Health and key government partners have been closely working with several leading pharmaceutical companies around the world who were in advanced stages of developing vaccines against COVID-19. This proactive approach to securing a COVID-19 vaccine proved very effective and two agreements were signed — with Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna.”
He said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first of these two be given FDA approval and on December 21 Qatar received its first shipment.
"As with all countries across the world, we are currently faced with limited supplies of vaccines from Pfizer/BioNtech as they work to meet global demand. We have now received several shipments of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines and we are due to receive weekly deliveries throughout February,” he pointed out.
He said, "In the next 10 days we expect to receive the first delivery of Moderna vaccines. While this will be a very limited quantity, this is an encouraging development and we can expect regular, larger deliveries of both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to arrive from early March.”
"From March onwards we will have significantly greater quantities of vaccines available to us and be able to greatly expand our output,” he said.
Dr Mariam Abdulmalik, Managing Director of Primary Health Care Corporation, said there were no serious side effects of the vaccine.
"In the first few weeks of the campaign our medical teams have carefully monitored all patients following their vaccinations as this essential to check for possible side effects. As with any vaccination we have seen a small number of mild side effects, mainly soreness at the site of the injection. However, we have not seen any serious side effects directly related to the vaccine among patients receiving either the first or second dose of the vaccine.”
She said from the January 13th onwards thousands of people began receiving their second dose of the vaccine.
"With operations running smoothly we expanded the vaccination campaign across 27 health centres across Qatar. This has boosted our capacity to administer vaccines and as more vaccines become available to us in Qatar, we will continue to increase output,” she said.
Dr Abdulmalik continued, "As we progress through the phases of the campaign, and larger quantities of the vaccine become available to us in Qatar, we will continue to increase the number of vaccines we administer every week.”
"Patients who are eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1 selected are being contacted directly by phone/SMS to advise them of their selection for the vaccine and invited to attend an appointment at one of the health centers,” she added.
She said a recent advance is the launch of a new MoPH online system for people to register their interest in receiving COVID-19 vaccine.
"People registering their desire to get the vaccine online and who meet the criteria for the first priority groups will be given earlier appointments to take the vaccines. People who register via the online page but who are not in one of the listed priority groups, will have their interest recorded and saved by the MOPH, and they will be contacted when they become eligible,” she said, adding that "following the launch of the online vaccine registration, more than 90,000 people have registered their interest.”
She said, "As more vaccines become available to us in Qatar, this registration form will provide a valuable resource for us to contact people who wish to receive the vaccine as early as possible.”