Qatar Coronavirus Update -- The Gov't is Serious About the App

Another day and sadly another record, 1,830 cases detected in Qatar in the last 24 hours. At least the daily recoveries are picking up, it's now around 600-900 a day. Unfortunately it is not outpacing new cases and the number of people in hospitals, and admitted to ICU, keeps growing. A Ministry spokesman noted that a patient admitted to ICU is there for two to three weeks, even longer if they have other underlying illnesses.

Also, sadly, two more people passed away, bringing the number to 19. The two who died were aged 50 and 43, around my age! Just a reminder of why one needs to be careful.

Today is the day that people in Qatar must have downloaded and started using the Ehteraz tracker app. And the Government is not kidding about this. I went out this afternoon to pick up an iftar meal from my Qatari friend and his father and to my surprise came across a police checkpoint on the road. The police were asking everyone to show the Ehteraz app working on their phones! I assume they were also checking that everyone was wearing masks, no more than two to a car etc, but that is easy enough to check. So I had to open my phone and show them that I had the app and that it was working.


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Tomorrow is likely the last day of Ramadan. It was so odd spending it at home. When the virus restrictions started happening I figured it would be over before Ramadan. How wrong I was.