Effective measures taken by the government have seen the new daily COVID-19 cases declining over the past days. The recent wave of infections, fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the Coronovirus, hit a peak of over 4,000 cases around January 16. The new cases have been gradually declining ever since though. On Wednesday, the country reported a total of 2,204 cases during the past 24 hours, including 535 cases being detected in incoming international travelers.
Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, while chairing a Cabinet meeting yesterday via video conference, also reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the country and took a number of decisions.
The Cabinet decided that 100 percent employees can continue working at their workplaces both in the government and the private sector. However, physical meetings at the workplace are limited to 30 fully-vaccinated people.
The cabinet has kept the requirement for unvaccinated workers in the government or private sector to take a rapid antigen test every week. People who recovered from COVID-19 are exempt from this. Mask mandates at all public places will also continue. The only exception is when playing in open places. Similarly, limiting car occupancy to four people, including the driver, will stay, with the exception of family members who stay in the same house. The Cabinet also announced the maximum number of people allowed together at social gatherings, wedding events, or at recreational places.
At the same time, the authorities have also expedited the booster shot rollout programme, having administered more than 0.7 million booster vaccine doses to date. Overall, Qatar has administered close to 5.7 million vaccine doses to date. Though the Omicron variant is believed to cause only mild to moderate symptoms in most cases, the unvaccinated are particularly vulnerable to the infection. Officials have said that most of the recent COVID-19 deaths or hospitalisations were of patients not vaccinated or vaccinated over nine months ago. This is why primary vaccine doses as well as the booster shots remain crucial for continued protection against the Coronavirus. On Wednesday, there were 491 people hospitalised with COVID-19 and another 90 in the intensive care.
To further accelerate the testing and booster vaccination, the Ministry of Public Health has announced that the Lusail COVID-19 drive-through will now be offering both booster vaccine doses as well as PCR tests.
