The Passing of Queen Elizabeth II

So last night it was announced that the Queen had suddenly passed away. I suppose this day was coming, she was 96 after all, but given her mother lived to 101 I kind of hoped she'd have a few more years yet. 

I was in a majlis when I first heard the news that she was ill. When it was reported that the Royal Family were rushing to Balmoral I knew it was bad. Sure enough, later that evening the announcement was made of her passing.

What was interesting was when the news broke the Qataris I was with in the majlis were pretty much, "She died? Oh, well she was pretty old I suppose". Not much else of a reaction.

Qatar was never ruled by Britian, nor ever conquered by them. One might argue the British certainly had a lot of influence and oversight in the region up until the 1970s, whether signing treaties with the various rulers, developing the oil and gas fields, or providing military assistance to help allies (for example Sultan Qaboos of Oman had their assistance to overthrow his father and become Sultan). The Emir of Qatar released a statement of condolence of course, both he and the Father Emir had met Her Majesty on a number of occasions, but for your average Qatari, while they all knew of Queen Elizabeth, the British monarchy was simply a distant thing, a country in Europe ruled by a Queen. Most Qataris don't have an in-depth understanding of the history of the British monarchy or its significance, but then again why would they? The passing of Queen Elizabeth has about as much bearing to a Qatari as the death of the Swedish monarch would have to a non-Swede.

So everyone continued with their evening, chatting or playing cards while a football match played on the television. Life moves on here.  

With her passing it is the end of an era. Who knows what it will be called in the end, we already have an 'Elizabethan Era' in the 16th century, maybe it'll be called the "modern Elizabethan" or the "second Elizabethan" or something. Not all British monarchs got an 'era' but Elizabeth II certainly will, and unlike the others I think this will be the first time an era will not be defined by a particular style. Clothing, furniture, buildings, mention the name of a particular era and a certain style will come to mind for each of those things. But for the 'second Elizabethan era'? This is an era that covers the 1950s until now, and not only is there no specific style for the time, the styles change so radically that they are not comparable to each other. The somber clothes of the 1950s, the wild styles of the 60s and 70s, the punk-and-pastel looks of the 80s, can any of these be said to be the quintessential style of the last 70 years? And the technological change during the last 70 years, and how society changed so much during that time, how will that figure in the era? When the Queen was coronated many Brits didn't even have a television, now everyone can get real-time video on mobile phones.

I am saddened at her passing of course but she did not have long left and death is the natural course of things. The tradition and ceremony for succession has been well-ingrained over the centuries and the next two weeks have been planned meticulously, everyone, including the now King Charles III, knows exactly what they need to do during this time.

 

Summer Vacation Part 1 - Norway

I just got back from a one month vacation. The timing was good as a Covid wave went through Qatar over the last few weeks (I'm guessing the BA.5 variant) and it is starting to subside now. Cases are still high at over 600 a day but far less than a couple of weeks ago.

First was a one week vacation in Norway with friends, primarily in the northern city of Tromso. I don't recall how we wound up deciding to go there but it was a unique trip for me. Tromso is north of the Arctic Circle, so far north that in the middle of summer the Sun does not set. I have never been that far north so it was great to wade in the Arctic Ocean for the first time (briefly, the water was really cold of course) and to witness 24-hour daylight. The continuous daylight really does mess with your sleep schedule but I did bring a sleep mask and that helped a lot. Some of my friends didn't and their sleep got really screwed up. It's weird seeing daylight peaking through the curtains but it's 3am! Your mind starts thinking it's morning and time to get up. I spoke with a store owner, who turned out to be Kurdish, and asked him which was more difficult to deal with, the 24-hour daylight in the summer or the 24-hour darkness in the winter. He said the summer, again because the light can mess with your sleep. It's important to get a sleep schedule and stick to it, and have good black-out curtains.

The weather was mixed, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and rainy. I took this great picture of a rainbow, at 1am!

Tromso was a nice city and we toured around the area in cars, did a boat excursion, and took the gondola up the mountain for the views. The city is around 75,000 people and it surprised me that there would be a city that large that far north. In Canada there are no cities even remotely that big in the north.

I will also confess to trying a meat not generally found in the West -- whale. Norway is one of the few countries that still allows commercial whaling so we found a restaurant in Tromso that served whale steaks. The meat was a deep red, a much darker red than beef, but the taste was similar, though with a "fishiness" to it, which made it a bit odd. The waitress explained that the fishiness was from the whale oil. I enjoyed the dinner. Did I feel guilty about eating whale? Maybe a little, but as it could have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience I figured I'd give it a try.

Afterward we spent a couple of days in Oslo before moving on. I enjoyed Oslo, seemed like a laid-back city. Temperatures were really nice, in the high-20s, but I think that was because Europe was undergoing that heat wave so temperatures in Oslo were maybe a little higher than normal (one sunny day in Tromso it hit 26, which was also impressive). The nice weather meant everyone was out and about. We did go see a museum dedicated to polar exploration and wandered around the shore. 

 Next stop -- Canada.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Masks Restrictions Back in Place

As I expected the Government has put some restrictions back in place. Masks are now required at indoor public places. People were generally good at wearing masks in places like malls anyway but as it was not required there was the odd person not wearing one.

I guess after two years I have gotten used to seeing everyone wearing masks, and it was a bit surprising to enter the elevator at the office recently and see someone not wearing a mask. Well, everyone has to wear masks now.

The increase in restrictions is due to the rapid spread of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron. Community cases in Qatar are now at 600-700 a day, over 80 people are in hospital (none in ICU however) and another person died last week. A lot of people are coming down with it. I plan to go on vacation soon so I think for the next bit I will 'hunker down' so that my trip isn't postponed because I got sick just before I was supposed to leave.

It is also the Eid holiday starting on Sunday and the first thing Muslims do for Eid is visit relatives, that means a lot of going from house to house to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  The Government is also sponsoring festivities for the holidays. Which means lots of crowds and lots of meeting people. I expect a spike in cases from about the 12th to the 20th, which is worrisome. Not to mention tens of thousands of people have crowded the airport the last couple of days getting flights out, and the flights are PACKED. I'm sure many of them will come down with Covid shortly.

I'm glad it's a holiday, and I'm glad the Government has recognized that restrictions are needed, but I'm expecting this will get way worse before it gets better.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- With Relaxed Restrictions Comes More Cases

Qatar has relaxed almost all restrictions now. You do need to show your Ethteraz app to enter places but mask-wearing is not enforced (many people still wear them but it's optional). Things have apparently become so mellow that the Qatar health authorities have moved to reporting cases and other information weekly instead of daily.

And . . . cases are going up. Not a surprise I suppose with the looser restrictions and that highly contagious Omicron variants spreading around. From around 150 community cases a day, it went to around 240 a day (the weekly report gives the daily average) and now its around 320 a day. That's a lot, and a bit worrisome.  However there is no one in the ICU and no one has died. I think the last time someone in Qatar passed away from Covid was about three months ago. Hospitalizations are steady in the 25-35 range but it looks like most spend a couple of days in hospital before they are discharged. 

Despite the increase in cases there is no word on any restrictions being put back in place, I suspect as long as the hospitalizations are steady, and there is not an uptick in severe cases, then the Government will leave things as they are. But if it starts getting to 500+ cases a day they might reconsider.

I'm still being careful, I certainly don't want to get Covid again. My last booster was at the end of December so the protection must be waning. Time to look at getting my booster dose before Eid in July.

  

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Cases Increasing

Recently got back from Eid Vacation, I'll post about that later. 

Discouraged to see that cases are rising again in Qatar, I am guessing it's due to those new Omicron variants going around (I think they are called B.A.4 and B.A.5, or maybe it's the one in America, B.A.2.1.2 or something like that). After a brief period of community cases under 100 a day Qatar is now consistently back to around 120-150 cases a day. Hospitalizations are also steady at around 30 with 1-2 people in the ICU. Thankfully no deaths, I think it's been almost two months since someone died from Covid here.

It also means that the restrictions in Qatar are the same as before with little change. It is changing in other countries, such as in the EU, but here you still have to get a rapid test when you return from a trip, and show your tracker app to enter buildings. Mask wearing is also still mandatory indoors and for the most part people have been good about it, not as vigilant as before but pretty good. We'll have to see how this develops over the next few weeks, cases are on the rise in Canada and the US so there's no reason to expect it won't happen here.

A New Mall - the Vendome

 [Coronavirus cases are hovering around 100 a day, some days less than a 100, others more. Hospitalizations are under 30 and only one person is in the ICU]

So a new mall just had its soft opening yesterday, the new Vendome Mall in Lusail. You can look it up on Google Maps -- it is HUGE.

As it was a soft opening maybe 20-25% of the shops were open but almost all of the areas of the mall were open and tons of people were roaming around to check out the mall. One thing of note is the massive fountain area in the middle of the mall.

And with the mall being three stories in some areas they went with high ceilings and lots of glass.

The supermarket is a Monoprix.

I didn't take pictures of all the other stores because it is a soft opening, and most of the stores that are open are ones you can find in other malls. It will be a while later before the unique shops open. I will note that there were a lot of luxury stores (Jimmy Choo, Dior, Burberry, etc etc,) so there is yet another mall to compete with the luxury shops in other places. Not sure how that will pan out, I suspect some luxury stores in other parts of the city will close up.

While the pictures look nice there was a lack of seating everywhere. Huge wide hallways but no seats. I can only assume that will be coming later because you need to have places for people to sit down. It was weird wandering around and not having anywhere to sit down.

The mall looks beautiful and will be a welcome addition to the new Lusail neighbourhood. Glad it will be finished in time for the World Cup.

Ramadan Kareem!

It's Ramadan, the announcement was made last night.  Time for a month of fasting from first light (~4am) until sunset at around 6pm. 

Spent the last week decaffinating, slowing weaning myself off of coffee, otherwise I would get a massive headache the first day.  It was also weird putting food and water on my nightstand so that I could eat something quickly at 3:30am before going back to sleep.

It will be nice to enjoy Ramadan festivities again, due to Covid I was home for the last two Ramadans, either because of lockdown or because I was keeping myself safe by limiting how much I went out. But things have settled down here, cases are around 100-ish a day, and so it'll be nice to get out an enjoy the month. Already planning to stop by a friend's majlis at 9pm, that's when the Ramadan prayers (Tarawih) end and things start happening in the country. From around 9pm until 2am or so everyone is out and about, visiting friends, shopping, doing errands, whatever.

Here's hoping we all have a happy, mellow Ramadan.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Frustratingly Stable, oh and Canada is in the World Cup

Over the last two weeks I watched, waiting for the numbers to steadily drop below 100, maybe even below 50 cases a day, but it didn't happen. On average there are around 120-150 community cases a day and it has just stayed there. I'm not sure why it has levelled off there. The good news is the hospitalizations are minimal, now there are fewer than 30 people in hospital and only one in the ICU. No one has died of Covid in the last two weeks. 

With that the Government has relaxed most restrictions. Masks should still be worn indoors, and you need to show the Ehteraz tracking app to go into many places, but travelers now need to do a simple rapid test after landing, no need to do a PCR before coming to the country, and overall the country has moved on -- basically considering the pandemic over. Mask wearing is getting more haphazard and people don't take things as seriously anymore. Even in my office building they removed the restrictions on how many people can be in the elevator at once, or in a meeting room. Other countries are doing the same, apparently you don't need to get tested to enter Saudi anymore, and the same with Turkiye (i.e. Turkey, the Turkish Government has recently requested that the English-speaking world stop calling their country Turkey and instead say/spell it like they do, Turkiye).

Now on to great news -- Canada has officially qualified for the 2022 World Cup being held here in Qatar! It is only the second time Canada will play in the World Cup, the last time being in 1986. I hope to see their games. Now I need to try to get tickets...

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Omicron wave is over

Cases are now back to a level before the Omicron wave, today there were 116 community cases, and it has been under 200 a day for the last week. There is still the odd death, about four this week, but there's now only 26 people in hospital and 10 in the ICU, a far cry from two months ago when people were swarming testing centres and hospitals were filling up.

Qatar has announced further relaxing of restrictions, both for travel and while in the country. Masks are still required indoors, and the Ehteraz tracking app will need to be shown to enter buildings, but otherwise there are few restrictions anymore. Even travel restrictions are easy. Unless you came in from a 'red list' country (and there's only nine on the list) you don't need to do a pre-test to enter Qatar and on arrival do a rapid test within 24 hours. That's it. Well, if you're vaccinated that is, if you're unvaccinated then the process is trickier but you know what -- if you're an adult and don't have a valid medical reason for not being vaccinated then I have no sympathy about how restrictions inconvenience your life. If you have a Reddit account feel free to hang out on r/HermanCainAward to see how not being vaccinated can impact both yours and your family's life.

With no new variants on the horizon we might well be near a point where the pandemic is essentially over, at least for the time being. It'll be nice to travel without worrying too much about Covid. Looking forward to it in fact. I just got back from a trip to Turkey but I was still careful the whole time. 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - 300 Cases a Day, Hospitals Back to Normal

Today there were 309 community cases. Hospitalizations are WAY down, and now only 39 people are in hospital, of which 28 are in ICU. At the peak of the Omicron wave over 700 were hospitalized. Looks like the worst of the Omicron wave is now over.

The deaths continue though, sometimes 1 or 2 a day, occasionally none. Given how long people can linger in the ICU with Covid pneumonia it'll be a few weeks yet before most of them leave the ICU.  Sometimes I lurk on a Reddit sub-group called HermanCainAward and see the stories of people hospitalized with Covid. Some of them are in the hospital for months and, if they are unvaccinated, a lot of them eventually die. It's sad to think how many lives would have been saved had they been vaccinated.

In Qatar things are pretty much back to normal (well, Covid normal). Masks are still required indoors, and everyone needs their Ehtheraz tracking app to enter places, but other than that there are not many restrictions. Just waiting to see if the Government loosens travel testing requirements, I'll be travelling next week and would be nice to just do a rapid test instead of a PCR to be able to travel. If Omicron waves are receding everywhere then the Qatar Government might lessen the travel restrictions. Stay tuned.

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Around 500 a Day and More Lessening of Restrictions

Just a quick post. Yesterday there were 532 community cases and only 114 people are currently in hospital. Unfortunately the deaths lag the hospitalizations and most days 1-2 people are dying still. Compare that to the US though, if Qatar was having the same death rate that the US is having right now Qatar would be reporting 25-30 deaths a day. That's never happened, even at the peak of Delta the most number of deaths Qatar reported in a day was 10. In Mississippi, the worst-hit State and with a population similar to Qatar, they are averaging around 40-50 deaths a day at the moment.

With the decrease in cases the Government has removed more restrictions and now you don't have to wear a mask outdoors as long as you're not at a school, marketplace or other crowded area. I expect further measures will be relaxed in the coming weeks if cases keep dropping.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - At 1000 Cases a Day

The wave continues to abate, Qatar is now at around 1000 community cases a day, and about 4% of tests are coming back positive, down from 10% a while ago. Only 175 people are in hospital now, and 62 in ICU. Unfortunately the deaths continue, around 1-2 a day now. I expect that to continue for at least a couple more weeks. Three weeks ago around 600-700 people were hospitalized so it's good that people are recovering and if Qatar could handle 700 people then 175 shouldn't be placing a big strain on the health care system.

I'm still being careful but for most people it seems to be business as usual now. Everyone is out and about, going to restaurants & malls. I am of the view it's still a bit early for that, 1000 cases a day is a lot! Back during the beginning of the pandemic 300-400 cases a day was enough to trigger lockdowns but I guess two years later, and with a milder strain out there, people are just tired I guess. Pandemic fatigue has taken its toll and while people still mask and use the tracking app, I don't see the sense of anxiety about Covid as I used to. Maybe because so many people caught it during this recent wave and have recovered.

Based on how cases are declining I think within a week it'll be below 400 a day and the wave will essentially be over.

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Omicron Subsiding, Restrictions Lifted

Community cases in Qatar are dropping as fast as they were increasing a couple of weeks ago, from 2770 a day six days ago to 1621 today. Recoveries are now way outpacing new cases, over 4000 people recovered today. Even hospitalizations are now below 400, the daily rate of new patients is under 30, but unfortunately the number in ICU is still quite high. Makes sense, you're usually not in ICU for a day or two, those people could be there for weeks. Typically 1-2 people are dying every day now but they all appear to be quite elderly, 80s and 90s seem to be the common ages. 

So the Government announced an end to the restrictions that were put in place when Omicron started to take hold. Schools are back open, restaurants are back to normal capacity, restrictions limiting the amount of people in malls are revoked, and offices can be back to 100% of staff. What I call the 'base' restrictions will remain, such as mask wearing and showing your tracker app. More countries were moved to the travel red list though and I'm guessing it'll be a while, a month or more, before they are taken off it after the Omicron wave passes through.

I think too many people have jumped on that Omicron is 'milder' to mean it's not dangerous and they are totally wrong. The US reported over 3,000 deaths yesterday, numbers more akin to the peak of the Delta wave in 2021, and hospitals across the country are swamped. Vaccination is your best defense and it's so bizarre how many people are fighting it tooth and nail.

Looking at the death rates between Canada and the US it really is shocking to see the differences. Canada has way higher vaccination rates, and better embraced mask wearing, social distancing etc, and it shows. Here's a comparison of deaths per 100,000 people in a selection of US States and Canadian Provinces (and Qatar):

362 Mississippi (highest in US)

356 Arizona

350 New Jersey

346 Alabama

331 New York

320 Michigan

280 Montana

274 North Dakota

202 Minnesota

151 Quebec (highest in Canada)

140 Washington

127 Maine

110 Manitoba (next highest in Canada)

84 Vermont

81 Hawaii (lowest in US)

79 Alberta

75 Ontario

49 British Columbia

28 New Brunswick

23 Qatar

<15 rest of the Maritimes and Newfoundland

The differences are pretty sobering. The death rate in Ontario is one-quarter what it is across the border in Michigan. Quebec has the highest rate in Canada but it's less than half of neighbouring New York. Washington State has done well, for America, but across the border in BC it's around one-third of that. In fact, only Vermont could claim to have a lower death rate than the province nearest it (Quebec). Qatar is sure looking pretty good too. It demonstrates that vaccination and enacting measures to limit the spread of the virus did work.

Anyway, might stay at home for just a few more days, then cautiously go out, re-stock groceries, and so forth.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Wave May Have Peaked

Cases have been slowly declining, from 3300 community cases in a day to 3000 and today 2770. Positive test rate is at around 9%. Hospitalizations are down slightly but there is now more than 100 people in ICU. There were also a few more deaths this week, but I think they were all at least 70 years old.

While it's not the most ideal source, a friend of a friend in the healthcare sector said many in ICU were due to the more noxious Delta variant. With all the news about Omicron everyone seems to have forgotten that Delta is still around. This also has implications for how long you should quarantine, the US has moved to five days and while that might be okay for an Omicron infection for Delta it is more than likely you'll still be contagious five days after showing symptoms. You'll probably still be sick after five days. Delta is not something you want to be spreading around. In Qatar while they do subsequent sequencing to see which variant someone has they do not disclose that to the person. I assume it's because they do not get the results right away so it doesn't matter too much to inform the person. When I got sick with Covid last year I was never told which variant is was (original Covid, Alpha or Beta were all possibilities).

I'm still hunkered down but glad to see that this Covid wave might be receding. I wouldn't mind getting out and seeing friends and shopping for groceries but at the moment it's still too early for that. I can easily live off my existing groceries for another 2-3 weeks, I stocked up on non-perishables as soon as I heard about Omicron.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Cases Steady but Still High

The last three days the community cases have been steady at 3300-3500 a day. Given the number of tests being done the positivity rate is around 10%, quite high and indicates that we're not out of the woods yet. God, it was a month ago that I was mentioning how case rates of 140-170 a day were a bit too high for my liking. Wow, did I underestimate how contagious Omicron would be.

Around 90-100 people go to hospital every day but if you're vaccinated Omicron symptoms are usually not too severe and you're out of the hospital in one to two days. That said the numbers in hospital are steadily increasing: 628 in hospital (about 550 three days ago), and 91 in ICU (67 three days ago). A few more people have passed away unfortunately but today the announcement was especially sad, one of the victims was a 3-week old baby. The Government only gives the age and no other details.

Two days ago a Ministry of Health spokesperson noted that all of the deaths in the last week (two?) were people who were not vaccinated. Given the ages of some of the people who died, some were in their 80s or 90s, that surprises me that they weren't vaccinated. Unfortunately while Qatar does have over 90% of eligible people vaccinated (ages 12+, Pfizer is approved for kids 5-12 but rollout would happen this month) that would still be around 200,000 unvaccinated people aged 12+ in the country. I know at least two people who still have not been vaccinated. I hope, if they catch Covid, that everything will be okay cause if at this stage you aren't vaccinated then it's on you. It's not like you don't know that vaccines offer protection.

I'm still hunkering down at home. I do need to go to the office but it's home to the office, eat lunch at my desk, and straight back home afterward. Work is pretty good about masks, sanitizer, distancing etc.  and I hope that over the next week the wave will subside.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Omicron Still Sweeping the Country

Cases continue to climb but more slowly. 2 days ago it was 3500 community cases, and in the last two days around 3800. Is this the peak? Not sure about that, we'll see.

Despite the growth in cases hospitalizations have stabilized and are still around 550. ICU numbers are up though, from 51 three days ago to 67 now. Four people have died in the last three days, but three of them were older than 80, one was 91. Even vaccinated people at that age are at risk.

And the title is a bit misleading as it assumes everything is Omicron now. The deadlier Delta variant continues to have a presence in Qatar. In a news report yesterday a Government spokesperson said that around 20% of cases were Delta. Bad news in that Delta is a nastier strain, but on the other hand vaccines offer better protection against it.

I cannot believe how many people I know who are sick with Covid right now. Most of my friends, and probably 20-30% of the office, are infected or recently recovered. I've been generally isolating since returning from my trip, only going to the fairly empty office by car, so my days are either entirely in the apartment or apartment-work-apartment. I have not gone anywhere else for the last nine days. Given the case rates though I think I'll need to keep it up for at least another week, if the wave subsides significantly by then. Omicron is so contagious that it will have infected most of the population soon, at which point the wave will die out for lack of people to infect. Just a matter of laying low until then.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Omicron Wave Continues

 Daily community cases continue to climb, 2 days ago it was 2,800, yesterday was 3,000 and today is 3,300. I think today's was a record for the entire pandemic in Qatar, not surprising since Omicron is breaking case records wherever it goes. Over 550 people are hospital and 51 in the ICU, one person in their 60s died today. What worries me is the delay between hospitalizations and deaths, in New York data showed that hospitalizations peaked two weeks after the cases, and ICU 18 days later. That might mean in terms of hospitalizations we are only seeing the beginning. However over 90% of the eligible population in Qatar is vaccinated so that should help, if vaccinated people with Omicron wind up in hospital it is typically for only 1-2 days so hospitals have a high turnover of patients (50-90 are entering hospital every day, but overall numbers are increasing by 10-30).

The detected cases are surely an underreporting of the actual figures. Not because the Government is manipulating the data but (1) due to issues with delays in getting PCR tests many people are using in-home rapid tests, but if they are positive then the Government wouldn't know unless it was reported to them and (2) Omicron is milder so many more people are asymptomatic and don't even realize that they have Covid.  I know of people in both categories and in the latter case they only knew when they went to a clinic for something else and the clinic tested them as part of protocol. They felt totally fine and had no idea they had Covid.

Qatar has announced new guidelines for testing, now most returning travelers can do a rapid test instead of a PCR, and in other cases people don't need PCR tests anymore. This is to relieve the burden on the testing facilities as they are under strain and have a huge backlog of tests. My recent PCR result (negative) took over four days. By then if you had Omicron you'd probably know and have mostly recovered.

So we do not appear to be at the peak yet. It could be another 1-2 weeks of case increases until things start to decline.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Omicron Sweeping the Country

In my last post there were around 1000 community cases in one day. Since then it went to 1600. Then 2000. And now 2500, in one day. The growth in cases is absolutely crazy! Three more people I know have tested positive, and in two cases their families have as well. No one has died though in the last few days, which is good.

In two years of this pandemic the only time I knew people who got Covid was during the same event that I was infected from (ultimately five of us) and one other friend at around the same time. That was it. In these last couple of weeks I now know seven people who were infected, two more suspected cases, six people at the office, and their family members. It's wild how contagious this is.

I got my booster two weeks ago so for all I know I got it and had no symptoms. I have PCR test results pending but I'm now on day 4 of getting the results due to the backlog at the lab. 30-40 thousand people are getting tested every day now and it is causing delays getting the results. 

I haven't left the apartment for the last four days, looks like hunkering down is the way to go.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - The Omicron Wave is Here

Man, what a difference a week makes. From 200 community cases a day it went to 300, then 500, then 600. And today it was over 1000 community cases in addition to over 600 cases from travelers. In my last post I mentioned that 162 people were now in hospital and 18 in the ICU, which was a big increase. Well now it's 409 and 32! Omicron is milder but it infects so many people so quickly that it can still overwhelm health care facilities. Testing clinics are seeing huge numbers of people getting tested, and the Government has reintroduced mask mandates, delayed school opening by a week, as well as converting at least one hospital to a Covid-only facility. The health authorities are also asking people not to utilize emergency facilities or ambulances for mild to moderate cases. 

One friend has tested positive and another friend's elderly mother also caught Covid (apparently she has mild symptoms and is resting at home, which is good news). And everyone knows people at their workplace who tested positive. It's totally crazy.

I am hunkering down at home now but it'll be a nervous week as it is totally possible that I might have been exposed sometime in the last few days given I was out and about -- Omicron spreads so easily even a chance encounter could have done it. Here's hoping I'm fine and that recent booster dose has kicked in.