Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Mandatory Testing Announced

Last post I mentioned a rumour that some offices were looking into mandatory weekly testing for unvaccinated staff. Looks like I was partly correct, it was not offices that were looking at doing it, it was the Government.

As part of moving to Phase 2 of lifting restrictions they announced:

"All employees in the public and private sector must carry out a rapid antigen test that is accredited by the Ministry of Public Health on a weekly basis. This applies to employees who did not receive or continue all the doses of their COVID-19 vaccines. Those who did take both doses, recovered from the disease, or those whose health condition does not allow based on a medical report accredited by MoPH, are exempt from taking the rapid antigen test."

And so this is required by all employers. Later that day was the announcement from our office about it. Other details:

-- the employee bears the cost for the test, and 

-- if they have to quarantine then it comes out of their annual leave, not sick leave.

Glad I got my second dose this week. Yes, I have recovered from COVID so technically do not need to do the test but still, nice to be fully vaccinated now.

Looks like the Government is getting serious about people who are hesitant to get vaccinated. I said it last post and I'll say it again, I expect in the future that they will not renew work permits for unvaccinated expats. Essentially there will be some kind of measure that unvaccinated expats will need to leave the country. You heard it here first.

I'm vaccinated!

Yesterday I received my second shot of Moderna from the clinic so I am now fully vaccinated. Just need to be careful for a couple of more weeks so that the vaccine has time to develop antibodies. There are a lot of variants in the world now but thankfully the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have shown to be effective against all variants so far. This should mean that I will not have any trouble travelling this summer.

Community cases (as opposed to cases from travelers in quarantine) in Qatar have been stubbornly stuck at 80-100 a day for a while now. While it's a low number, comparable to lower-case areas in Canada and the US, I was hoping they would get below 80 by now. According to Government data 68.8% of eligible people have had one shot, and 53.7% have had two (including me!) so I would have thought community cases would have decreased further by now. The rate of vaccinations have slowed, now at 15-20 thousand a day, at that rate it the amount vaccinated will go up roughly 1% every three days. It's a bit frustrating, I was hoping we would hit 75% by now but it looks like it'll be early next month.

The restrictions are scheduled to go to Phase 2 on the 18th. I'm not sure what that will entail but likely a greater % can be in offices, restaurants and places like barbers. I'm sure the lifting of restrictions will only target the fully vaccinated, the Government will continue to offer this as an incentive for people to get vaccinated. Restaurants have been pretty strict about it, I went to a Tim Hortons the other day and they wouldn't let me sit in the restaurant unless I showed proof of vaccination.

There are some Qataris who are not getting vaccinated for whatever reason, but many did, only because if they don't then they can't travel. If Qatar does not reach 75-80% I could see more measures being taken, probably not against citizens but perhaps mandatory vaccination for expats. If all expats had to be vaccinated then 90+% would be easily achieved. I heard a rumour that one Qatari organization is planning an imposed mandatory PCR test for staff who are not vaccinated -- weekly, and that the cost of the test will come out of the employee's pocket or something like that. Basically a way to say 'get vaccinated or leave'. It was just a rumour though, my office certainly has not imposed anything like that, not that they need to as I think everyone is in the process of being vaccinated. That said my office is keeping track, asking every member of staff if they have been vaccinated and when. 

So in two weeks I'll be as fully-protected as I can be. Time to start planning vacations.