Qatar- Social awareness key to fighting Covid pandemic

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Qatar has administered more than 700,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine since the start of the national programme. The pace of Covid-19 vaccination is set to further accelerate as the number of vaccinations provided per week is expected to increase to 180,000-200,000 doses, Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, chair of the National Health Strategic Group on Covid-19 and head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation, said recently. That said, the total number of active Covid-19 cases in the country had crossed 14,000 as of Friday, according to the daily data issued by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).  As of yesterday, there were 126,707,314 confirmed cases in 219 countries and territories. Some 2,779,837 people have died so far from the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak. This clearly emphasises that amid the good news on vaccinations, it is important to keep in mind that halting Covid-19 requires continued adherence to public health measures. Qatar's Cabinet recently announced a raft of measures to curtail the spread of Covid-19, which according to our health authorities, has shown a rise in the number of infections in the past couple of weeks, with many of the patients requiring hospitalisation. Dr al-Khal stressed that the data and clinical evidence are clear — 'Unless we all do our part in following these new restrictions as well as all the preventive measures, we will continue to see the number of new daily cases increase daily. 'If we take responsibility and act appropriately over the next two to three weeks, we can cut this virus off and begin to see a big decline in cases, he said.  'With the holy month of Ramadan fast approaching in April, we must all do what we can now so that we can control this virus quickly and hopefully ease some of the restrictions during Ramadan and be able to celebrate Eid. 'We all have an individual responsibility to play our part in getting through this pandemic. Although we are in a better position this year than last year because of the vaccines, at least for now, we must all work together and tighten the measures against Covid-19. As emphasised in these columns earlier, the pandemic has presented a unique set of challenges for all of us. We are still learning more and more about coronavirus every single day, but public health experts continue to warn that you don't actually have to be exhibiting symptoms to spread the new coronavirus. A person infected with the virus can be contagious as early as three days before he or she begins showing symptoms. In addition, some people never develop symptoms, but are still able to spread the virus. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a new level of personal accountability on each one of us. To slow the spread of coronavirus and protect the health and vitality of our people, we must remain committed to the extra precautions our public health officials are recommending. At the core of these preventive measures is the need for continued social distancing and to take all of the precautions seriously — even if one is healthy.MENAFN27032021000067011011ID1101821222