Thursday, April 02, 2020

Qatar Coronavirus Update - Growing Caseload, Further Preparations by the Government

Two days ago the number of cases increased by 88, the second greatest number of daily new cases in Qatar (until today). Yesterday was 54 cases and today was 114 cases. In total Qatar has 949 cases. Sadly two more people died.

This is likely further causing strain on health resources, only 72 have recovered so while we have all these cases only about 10 people a day are recovering, which means more people who potentially need medical care. The Government has converted another clinic into a covid-19 only center.

But the new cases might not be as alarming as at first glance. The Government also announced they are now able to significantly increase the number of tests being done per day. Some days it's at around 2300 tests. This is another reason why the number of cases has increased, because the Government was able to expand testing.

Qatar is not at a complete lockdown and many businesses, as well as offices, can be open. The Government has now mandated that even in the private sector only 20% of employees can work at the place of business, at least 80% must work from home or not show up for work. To help enforce this the Government has also mandated operating/working hours for all businesses: 7am to 1pm. I suspect that is so the authorities can determine if a business is violating the rules. If you work from home though then the regular hours can apply, probably a way for the Government to incentivize businesses to make staff work from home.

Still more Qataris getting arrested for violating self-quarantine. A lot of Qataris returned from abroad recently and were mandated to self-quarantine but many continue to ignore it. Given many Qataris don't listen apparently the Government announced that Qataris are no longer allowed to leave the country. "Apparently" because some Qataris told me about it on social media but I did an English language Google news search and don't see anything about it. Not that there would be a reason for the Government to announce it in English.

Looks like Qatar is getting a wave of cases now. Stay home everyone!

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