The number of cases in Qatar continues to hold steady at around 200 to 250 a day. Today was 197 cases, for a total of 3428. At least no one else passed away, so far the death toll is at seven.
Because of all the focus on the high impact areas such as Italy, Spain or the US, less-impacted countries don't get much mention in the news. Qatar has a lot of cases for its size though. For comparison in the Province of British Columbia (where I'm originally from) they are now averaging around 20 to 25 cases a day and currently have a total of about 1500 cases. That is for a population of 5 million right next door to the US. Qatar has a population of 2.8 million.
Most of the new cases are from the Government's effort to trace and test all contacts of the existing cases. I'm hoping that in time the number of cases from Qataris that arrived in the country recently will slow, now that the Government is mandating quarantine for all arrivals. A Qatari friend's brother just got out of two-week quarantine at a hotel, he had flown in from the UK. He was fine and did not have the virus but many arriving from abroad did.
Other good news is that the number of people recovering every day is going up, now it's around 30-40 a day. Qatar still has a way to go before the recoveries are in line with the number of new cases. I expect recoveries will actually slow down over the next week because after an initial wave of cases (around 300-400) Qatar went through a stage where they were only getting 5-15 new cases a day. Recoveries will pick up again when this 'second big wave' of cases starts to recover, but that will take time.
It looks like I'll be locked down for some time yet, which is annoying. I've been in my apartment for 25 days now but I will need to go out soon to top-up the groceries, unfortunately with this wave of cases I'm going to hold out as long as I can and hopefully the daily cases will start to decrease.
I wish I could say I am doing exciting things while under lockdown but it's pretty monotonous. I work from home so at least that keeps me busy, otherwise it's internet and reading mostly, and using YouTube videos for exercise. Since you are probably in lockdown as well I'll start sharing one website or video series I watched every time I post. Today I recommend going to YouTube and looking up "Sister Wendy's Odyssey", a nun who visits museums and analyzes key pieces of art. It was a hit BBC series and it is actually quite good, she's a great speaker.
I would like to wander out and take photos of a quiet Qatar but I'm not risking it. Even the Ministry of Public Health's (moph.gov.qa) coronavirus tip of the day was, "Stay at home and do not allow visitors." Ummm, okay. Got it.
No comments:
Post a Comment