Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Phase 1 of Restrictions Easing on the Back of Lower Case Numbers

Yesterday some restrictions were eased, as planned by the Govt. Restaurants, hair salons and so forth can now open in limited capacity. 

Because I am not full vaccinated I figured I was out of luck and would not be able to go anywhere until mid-June but I saw an announcement today from the Ministry of Health that people who recovered from COVID and have had one dose of vaccine can have the same privileges as fully vaccinated people, I just need to show my ID and vaccination card. So I guess I can go to restaurants and cafes again!

And cases in Qatar continue to move downward as vaccination rates pick up. Yesterday was a grand total of 156 cases, of which 98 were community cases, the first time in months it has been that low. Only 234 people are in hospital now and 133 in ICU. It wasn't all that long ago that over 1,000 people were in hospital. 

Just across the water in Bahrain things continue to spiral out of control. The county imposed a heavy lockdown a few days ago as cases are now around 3,000 a day and about 20 people are dying every day there. Scary.

If Qatar can keep things under control then I expect in the next month over 70% of the population will have been vaccinated. Right now 46.7% have been fully vaccinated and an additional 16% have one dose. I am not sure at what percentage herd immunity kicks in (it varies from virus to virus) but Qatar should be on track to achieving it within 1-2 months.  

Got My First Vaccine Dose!

This week I finally was able to get my first dose of vaccine. Under Qatar's rules if you came down with COVID you couldn't get vaccinated for 90 days and that was in May. Managed to get an appointment (two weeks later) and went to the clinic to get vaccinated. I was told it could be a long wait, some of my friends had to wait an hour or two, but it was pretty smooth and I was in front of the nurse in about 20 minutes. Qatar only uses Pfizer and Moderna but which one you get is dependent on availability. I was offered Moderna and I didn't mind, studies are showing that both are more effective than other vaccines at protecting from COVID and the variants going around. Probably because they are both mRNA vaccines, whereas the others were developed using different techniques.

Arm was sore for a few days and two nights later I had a mild headache and difficulties sleeping but that was it overall for side effects. Next dose is four weeks after the first, so by mid-June I'll have the second dose.

Cases of COVID in Qatar have stabilized, every day now there are around 150-250 community cases. The Government is hesitant to relax restrictions as they are concerned that cases will increase due to people socializing over the Eid holiday (last week) so we'll see how things develop.

The Government is right to be concerned because next door, in Bahrain, things are getting out of hand. In the past week the country has been averaging around 2,500 cases and over 12 deaths a day, in a country of 1.7m people! That's roughly the equivalent of the US having 475,000 cases and 2,000 deaths a day. Not good. I spoke to a Bahraini about it and he thinks it is because the country did not enforce as severe a lockdown as in Qatar (Bahrain imposed some restrictions during Eid so when they announced they would people rushed around visiting relatives and stocking up on goods) and also because they primarily used the Sinopharm vaccine, and it's effectiveness is now being questioned. Hopefully things improve there soon.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel, as vaccinations continue things will get under control. Hopefully I can travel this summer.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Restrictions to Start Lifting May 28

Yesterday the Government announced a four-phase plan for lifting the current restrictions, with Phase 1 coming into effect May 28 and the other phases at three, six and nine weeks later. That means the current restrictions will stay for another two-and-a-half weeks, and over the Eid period (starting Wednesday or Thursday).

 

The Government was encouraged by the drop in cases. They are still trending downward and today there were fewer than 300 community cases -- a great improvement from the last 4-5 weeks. We're not out of the woods yet, sadly deaths are still occurring, six yesterday and four today. About 500 people remain in hospital with over 200 in ICU. The Government did mention that so far they have not found the Indian variant of the virus in the country.

One of the interesting things that the Government is doing is that the lifting of restrictions is geared towards vaccinated people. Schools and nurseries can't open unless all staff are vaccinated. Restaurants can have limited indoor seating but only for people who are vaccinated. Indoor gatherings will be limited to 5 people if all are vaccinated. Theme parks, leisure centres, cinemas and gyms can open at limited capacity and only for vaccinated people. Barbers as well, vaccinated clients only.

Basically Qatar is saying, "Don't want to get vaccinated? Then stay home."  Sucks a bit for me as my appointment for my first dose is May 17th so I won't be fully vaccinated until June, but I still support what the Government is doing.

As everything regarding vaccination is centralized with the Health Ministry it is easy to see who is vaccinated. The Ehteraz tracking app that everyone is required to have indicates if you are vaccinated. No need to worry about people having fake vaccination papers and stuff. 

So I'll be under the restrictions a couple of weeks longer than everyone else. I don't mind, as long as we get through this pandemic.

15 Years in Qatar!

Wow, it's been 15 years now. I landed in Qatar in May 2006 to start a new job, expecting to be here maybe 3 or 4 years and here we are 15 years later. 

And to celebrate I stayed home. No restaurants, no malls. I don't have a liquor license anymore so no celebratory drinks either. 2021 is still not a time for celebrations and socializing.

Covid-wise things are still not great in Qatar. Community cases are at around 300-500 a day and 7-10 people die each day. It is sad looking at the news and knowing that people in their 40s and 50s are passing away from it every day, something that was uncommon last year. COVID is no longer an illness that puts people at 65+ at risk, now it's 40+, maybe even 35+. Scary. The UK variant and South African variant are here and I'm sure it's only a matter of time for the Indian one gets hold. The Qatar Government has placed a mandatory hotel quarantine for anyone arriving from South Asia, even if they are vaccinated, I assume in a bid to stop the Indian variant circulating in the community. If vaccination can stop the variants then Qatar just needs to get through the next month or so but it goes to show how contagious the new variants are that there are so many cases here despite the vaccination rollout.

Qatar has stepped up vaccination though, from around 25 thousand doses a day to 30 thousand. That means up to 100,000 people will have received their second dose each week, pretty good for a country of 2.6 million. I believe over 500,000 people have been fully vaccinated already.  I have an appointment in two weeks for my first dose. It will be either Pfizer or Moderna as those are the only two given in Qatar. That means by mid-June I will receive my second dose and can relax a little. A recent article in the Guardian shows that the number of doses given out so far in Europe is around 33 per 100 people, though in the UK it is a fantastic 73.4 doses per 100 people, which is why case rates and deaths in the UK are now quite low (yesterday they had only one COVID death). The US is also at 70+. Canada is at 36-37. In Qatar it is at 61 doses per 100 people, well ahead of the EU average. 

Celebrations will maybe be in June. For now I am trying to stay safe.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Possibly Reached the Peak of the Second Wave

Community cases are starting to ease, they are now at around 500 a day and the number of people recovering is outpacing the number of new cases.  It is still a challenging time, over 1000 people are in hospital and hundreds are in ICU.

The new strains of COVID are quite scary in just how deadly they are.  At the height of the pandemic last year, now known as the first wave, around 4-7 people were dying every day and there were over 2000 cases a day. Now Qatar has not even reached 1000 cases a day yet 5-10 people die every day of COVID. And it is affecting younger people as well, every day when I look at the government press release about the deaths I know that I will see ages in the 40s to 50s, sometimes even in the 30s. COVID is now less of a disease that primarily impacts people over the age of 65 and more something that puts people over the age of 40 at risk. Really scary.

Because of the restrictions there's not much happening this Ramadan, I miss seeing the Ramadan Cannon and attending other festivities as this will be the second Ramadan under lockdown restrictions, but catching COVID is just not worth it so the government is doing the right thing.

Like everyone I'm just getting tired of this and so wish things were back to normal. We're so close though. Hopefully after this wave subsides the vaccination program will reach most of the population. If only vaccination had started a month or two earlier this wave might not have even happened.

Ramadan Kareem!

Ramadan has started. Unfortunately with all the recent troubles with COVID and the lockdowns it hasn’t been much of festive atmosphere here. Given last year during Ramadan I was almost completely locked down in my apartment I suppose just being able to go out is a step up. The start of the pandemic seems so long ago it is hard to believe it has been just a little over a year.

 

I did decaffeinate in preparation for Ramadan as I always do and, as usual, I will be fasting. The first day was tough, I don’t think I drank enough water beforehand so by the late afternoon I was really lethargic and had a headache. I made a conscious effort to drink a lot more water today (does 3:30am count as ‘today?).

 

I am not sure what the general population are going to do given the COVID restrictions. Only family members from one household can meet indoors, and if you are outside the limit for meeting is five unrelated people – and all five of them must be vaccinated. That means no visits to friends and relatives. Mosques have strict opening and closing times to prevent people from hanging around, and are not allowed to hold tarawih prayers, a special set of prayers held during Ramadan after the evening Isha prayer. Offices are at 50% with the rest expected to work from home, less strict than last year (30%) but that still means working from home some days. Most stores are shut. I expect all of these restrictions will remain in place throughout Ramadan. Qatar is still reporting over 900 cases of COVID a day, although recent numbers seem to show that fewer of them are community transmissions and more are from travelers in quarantine, yesterday 250 of the cases were from travelers. Who are all of these people travelling right now that in one day 250 people would test positive in Qatar?! Stop travelling everyone!

 

Today I received a Ramadan dinner from a Qatari gentleman, the father of a friend of mine. Every day during Ramadan he does dozens and dozens of meals that he distributes to others and last year he invited me to take one home every day and it would be rude to refuse the hospitality. Today it was . . .

 

 

A meat/bread pudding, coconut cake for desert, and what looks like brownish mashed potatoes is actually haris, a ground grain mixed with a bit of meat. Qatari cooking doesn't go too heavy on vegetables though so I added those myself, cooking up some beans and miscellaneous veggies.

Now there was WAY too much food for just me to eat in a day (what you see in the photo is maybe a fifth of it), and I will be receiving a meal every day during Ramadan, so I take some for myself and share the rest with the security guards in my apartment building. I will be fine for meals all month.

Please stay safe everyone.

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Over 900 Cases a Day and New Restrictions

As feared things are getting worse, cases are over 900 a day, and deaths have been increasing. The other day eight people died of the virus, sadly a new one-day record since the pandemic started. It is likely due to the highly contagious UK strain.

The Government held a press conference to outline new restrictions: restaurants take-out and delivery only, 50% capacity in offices, metro restrictions, total ban on functions like weddings etc. Outdoor meeting of five people or less and only if they are from the same family or all have been vaccinated. It's tough restrictions but not as harsh as during the first wave last year. One of the Government's concerns is not just the numbers but how they are seeing more hospitalizations of younger people. This is also playing out with the deaths, it seems like there are a lot more in their 30s and 40s than before.

Vaccine distribution is still going well, at around 25 thousand doses a day. The Government estimates that at least 25% of the adult population have received at least one dose. My estimate is it will increase by almost 1% every two days. If Qatar just gets through this lockdown, likely to last through the month of Ramadan (which starts next week), then I think we'll be through the worst of it and the case rates will rapidly drop.

So it looks like I'm mostly working from home again. Stay safe everyone, we're almost through it.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Restrictions Re-imposed

For that last few days Qatar has gone over 500 cases a day, and today we crossed the 600-mark at 602. Hospitals are starting to fill up again and the deaths are climbing, in the last three days seven people have passed away from the virus. To give you an idea on 21 December I posted that there were fewer than 220 people in hospital for COVID of which 22 were in ICU. Now there are 1,350 people in hospital and 244 in ICU. This week two cases occurred in the office where I worked so the whole floor was shut and everyone had to work from home. Well, except me as I recently recovered from COVID so I went in each day and 'held the fort' so to speak. It was odd having the whole floor to myself.

The Government has reimposed restrictions, shutting some types of business, banning people under 12 from malls, restricting capacity at restaurants, and majlises can have only up to five people. The restrictions seemed geared towards Qataris as offices are still allowed to run at 80% occupancy so I suspect a lot of the cases are amongst the Qatari population. 

Vaccination efforts have stepped up and the Government how gives daily stats on the number of doses administered. It is around 700,000 doses now so I suspect about 200-250 thousand people are fully vaccinated and the rest have their first dose. Around 20,000 doses are being administered every day now. There's still a ways to go yet, at that rate to get 70% of the population vaccinated would take around 5-6 months. I think expats 50 and older can book an appointment now, and any Qatari over the age of 16.

So it looks like another time to semi-isolate. I have food stocked up so I don't need to go to the grocery store for a few weeks. I will still stop by a friend's majlis occasionally, pretty much everyone there is now either fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID recently. Last time I was there there were 10 people and two were not vaccinated/recovered yet, of whom one was someone who was rarely there. The other guy is getting his first vaccine dose on Sunday.

Stay safe everyone.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- and watching Roger Federer Play Tennis

 Qatar is still averaging over 400 cases a day (roughly the equivalent of 50,000 cases a day in the US) so the semi-restrictions are still in place. I heard a rumour that if it ever goes above 500 a day the Government will do a harsher lockdown but over the last few weeks it never reached that. I think the daily rate won't go much higher as it appears to be slowly going down in other GCC countries.

Qatar is still doing better than the rest of the GCC, both in terms of daily rates and in deaths, so the Government's actions are making a difference.

The Government has stated that over 300,000 doses of vaccine have been given out, but that means that probably less than 10% of the population has received at least one dose, still a long way to go. The vaccine is now available to every Qatari over 16, and to expats age 50 or older. As I came down with Covid in February I have to wait 90 days to receive the vaccine but almost all of my Qatari friends have been vaccinated now. That incident at a majlis where myself and three others were infected really spooked everyone and they rushed out to get vaccinated, which was a good thing I suppose. Wish some of us didn't get sick first.

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So I tried to buy tickets to the Qatar ExxonMobil Tennis tournament. As usual there were some great stars, including Roger Federer in his first tournament in over a year due to getting knee surgery, so there was a lot of excitement in the tennis world and all the major papers were following the event. Going online this is what I saw:

Federer's first match was Wednesday.

So on Wednesday night I was sitting at home when I got a call from a friend.

"I managed to get tickets! Can you get to the stadium ASAP?"

Luckily I live within a few metro stations of the tennis stadium so I was off, got there in about 30 minutes. Turns out my friend knew someone who had tickets but had to cancel so called my friend and offered the tickets to him.

We got inside just as the second set was underway.

Of course we had to show our Covid tracking app as well just to get into the grounds. Now the Government was strict about the social distancing, you could only sit in every fourth seat. All the other seats were tied shut so you could not open them to sit next to someone. It was staggered so you were not sitting near someone in the next row either, they were two seats away. It was a bit weird, sitting in a quarter-full stadium with everyone equally spaced.

Worth it to see Roger Federer though.

The match (against British no. 1 Daniel Evans) was a bit up and down, Dan was playing well but Federer was brilliant one moment, then shanking the ball the next. At the end of the last set suddenly Dan messed up a couple of points, giving Federer an opportunity and he managed to finish it on the second match point. It really could have gone either way.

It was great to see him play again -- who knows if there will ever be another opportunity. Unfortunately Federer lost his match the next day so the only chance to see him play again will be if he comes to the tournament next year. Not guaranteed to happen, he's skipped it before.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates (and an update about me too)

 My quarantine ended about five days ago and I was free! I did not come down with any other severe symptoms so after a rough first week things generally got better. Though I wound up with a mild-ish case COVID is no joke and it was not something I would like to repeat.

So far five of my friends have also come down with COVID and four of them had mild symptoms and recovered. One of my friends though, who is in his mid-30s, has had a much rougher time of it. Harsher symptoms, lasting much longer, lung issues, you name it.  He's on Day 16 from when symptoms started and he has been admitted to hospital twice now. He told me that things are improving and he hopes to be released from hospital in three days, he has a lung infection that they are treating but all of his other COVID symptoms are gone now. It was quite worrisome how bad he got this, and there is no reason why it couldn't have been me, or anyone for that matter. That is what is so scary about COVID, if you get it you have no idea what will happen and there is little that doctors can do except help you treat the symptoms while you fight off the virus.

Government rules for vaccination are that if you came down with COVID you have to wait 90 days before you can receive the vaccine. That means I won't get the vaccine until May. Yes I have some level of immunity in the meantime but I will not be able to travel without having to quarantine when I return. Once vaccinated I should be able to enter Qatar without quarantine. Meanwhile the age to register for the vaccine has been lowered to people 50 and older so the vaccine is slowly but surely being distributed in the country. I do not know how many people have been vaccinated now, I assume around 5% of the population, but things are progressing well. The country is still under some restrictions that were imposed a couple of weeks ago, those will likely remain for at least another month. Qatar is still at 400+ new cases a day but it has levelled off at that amount. Not great, better than the rest of the GCC but not great. 

I am hopeful that within a month enough people in Qatar will have been vaccinated that the case rates will drop significantly, and that by two months it will be back below 100 cases a day again.

I Have Tested Positive for COVID-19

So at the end of my previous post I said:

"So I think I will need to be more careful for the next while and hope this all passes."

If you look at the previous post there is a picture of a TV with the Government press conference, but there are other people in the room. That's because I was at a friend's place to hang out and watch the Thursday press conference. There were, I think, six of us there.

And unbeknownst to us one of them had COVID.

He felt fine and had no idea that he was ill, basically asymptomatic. But the next day (Friday) he started feeling unwell so went to get tested. On Saturday morning I received the call -- he had tested positive. I immediately locked down in the apartment, now I was going to have to self-quarantine for two weeks. Everyone was calling each other with updates and some had gone to the hospital to get tested. A friend of mine in the medical field told me not to get tested yet as it had only been 36 hours, not enough time for the virus to build up enough for me to register a positive test, if I tested now it would likely be negative. Better to wait a couple of days first then get tested.

It didn't take long, by Sunday evening the fever started. I got tested on Monday and had the results Tuesday.

It has now been about 12 days since the encounter and nine days since the first symptoms began. The first few days were the roughest: constant mild fever and loss of appetite. Panadol would sometimes help the fever but sometimes didn't. After that it seemed like one symptom would fade and another would appear. After the fever and loss of appetite came the muscle aches, then after a couple of days that went away and I got a stuffed up nose, then after that a bout of fatigue, then the occasional mild dry cough, it has been really weird. It does play on your mind, you're hopeful as a symptom fades that'll be the last of it but then something else happens and then I'm left wondering if something more severe is on its way.

Thankfully I never needed hospitalization and never had shortness of breath or a rough cough. The clinic did a chest X-ray when I went to get tested and they said it was fine. Given I haven't had any lung issues yet I am hopeful the virus never really got into my lungs.

Because I started getting symptoms after three days there was speculation that maybe I picked it up somewhere else. None of the other guys who were there that Thursday night came down with it, or so we thought. Yes, my symptoms showed up right away (three days, typically it's something like 5-8 days but 2-10 days is possible), unfortunately for the others it was later. So far two others have now tested positive, and one of them started getting sick eight days later. Now hoping their families didn't catch it. Thankfully no one has been hospitalized yet. I thank my lucky stars I have been okay so far, once you get it it's really a spin of the roulette wheel how it will affect you. Hoping the worst is over.

Meanwhile the cases keep increasing, now Qatar has over 400 a day. New restrictions have been implemented. Weddings and events are cancelled, malls and restaurants have reduced capacity. 

Sadly, too late for my friends and I.  

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Cases Increasing, Government Considering Further Measures

Over the last couple of weeks the number of cases started increasing and community transmission is now at over 300 a day, remember a couple of months back it was just under 100 a day. Along with the increase in cases has been a slow and steady increase in hospitalizations and ICU admissions. The Government held a press conference last Thursday and everyone was watching, the rumour was there would be some sort of restrictions put back in place, so everyone wanted to know what the Government would say. That there were rumours of restrictions were not far-fetched, a couple of days previously Bahrain closed schools and in-restaurant dining for three weeks, and the UAE has started to reintroduce restrictions as well. At the presser the Government did not announce any new restrictions but from what my friends told me the message to everyone was to essentially "get their act together" or more restrictions would be put in place. 

I have registered for the vaccine but haven't heard anything yet. When I get called will really depend on when and how much vaccine Qatar gets in future shipments. I am hoping within a month but who knows. 

Not that I will be travelling anytime soon, countries are increasing lockdowns. Canada implemented mandatory hotel stays for people entering the country and the UK has been banning flights from certain countries, including the UAE. Not a month ago the UAE was on the UK's safe travel list and now planes aren't even allowed to fly between the UK and UAE. Goes to show how things can change in a heartbeat. And now there's that new COVID variant in Brazil which is causing concern.

So I think I will need to be more careful for the next while and hope this all passes.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Levelling off, Vaccine Becoming More Available

Community transmission is still at ~150-170 a day, worse than a month ago but it seems to have levelled off and thankfully is not getting any worse. I was shocked to see what was happening in the UAE, I think in December they got some sort of safe travel designation from the UK, so people could go from the UK to the UAE and return without going into quarantine. Now the UAE is reporting 3,000+ cases of COVID a day! On a per-capita basis that's around six to seven times more than Qatar! The UK has since dropped them from the safe travel designation and now UK travelers have to quarantine. The UAE is now reporting 4-6 deaths a day and I expect it will get worse in the coming weeks. Good thing Qatar did not lessen travel restrictions. In fact the quarantine-hotel restrictions have been extended until May. I'm not sure if that applies if you get vaccinated though.

As for the vaccine Qatar has now lowered the age to get the vaccine to 60. The Ministry of Health has also started an online registration process for everyone else, you can register and when they have vaccine available for you they will contact you. I figure when the next shipment arrives I will be able to get my first dose, I just don't know when that will be.  

People have been making travel plans in anticipation of being vaccinated but I haven't really thought of that yet. It'll be at least a month from when I receive the first dose before I can travel so we are looking at April or maybe even May. Got time to sort out what to do.

The opening of the border with Saudi has not appeared to create much of a change in Qatar. Many Qataris went into Saudi to visit relatives, property they had left behind, go to Mecca, but not a lot of people coming into Qatar, I assume because they would have to quarantine first. Qataris I spoke to are a bit cautious about the developments, they welcome it but at the same time most have no plans to visit the blockading countries for a while yet, especially the UAE, who they especially do not trust. From word of mouth I heard that Qataris who have gone to Saudi have not experienced any troubles. I haven't heard of anyone going to Bahrain or Egypt yet.

Flights are now available to the blockading countries (maybe not Bahrain yet but that will be soon), which is great news. I have Bahraini friends and for them to get to Bahrain, normally a 25-minute flight, would take 5-8 hours as they had to go to Kuwait or Oman first then board a flight to Bahrain from there. It was also WAY more expensive to do that, typically triple the price of the Doha-Bahrain flight, or more!

And finally everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what other craziness is going to happen out of the USA. I mean, if what is happening there was a Hollywood script it would be rejected as being too outlandish and unrealistic. 

The Blockade has Ended! (Yes, things happened elsewhere in the World aside from the USA)

 So . . . did anyone hear that on January 5th the GCC met in Saudi Arabia and signed an agreement to end the blockade of Qatar? You didn't?! I guess it got buried in page 20 of the newspapers, you know, after the stories about the Democrats winning the Senate elections and the President unleashing a mob of "Y'all Qaeda" terrorists on the Capitol Building in Washington.

America is truly the World's "crazy-ex". Constant drama, and even when you want to ignore them and have them out of your life they get you caught up in all the craziness and you can't look away. Everything. Must. Have. Drama.   America can't seem to do things like normal countries.

Anyway, the blockade is over after three-and-a-half years. The borders will reopen, Qatar Airways can fly over Saudi airspace again, flights between the countries will commence shortly. It is not the end of the matter, the agreement was the 'good faith' step to get the countries to complete negotiations to resolve other issues. The blockading countries had 13 demands at the start of this situation and so far Qatar has not done any of them. Zero. So let's see where this goes from here.

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I said I would avoid malls and restaurants for a while due to COVID cases ticking up in Qatar but then I realized if Qatar opens the border then thousands of Saudis could potentially flood in. Saudi Arabia has pretty much given up on COVID testing, every day they report around 100 cases of COVID, yet around 10 people die every day, which is more indicative of 3000+ cases a day. Basically there is tons of undetected COVID going around Saudi Arabia. So I went to the grocery store and stocked up on a few things, hopefully that'll be it until I get vaccinated. Then I found out the Qatar Government had already thought about this as well and stated that anyone crossing the border from Saudi Arabia would need to be quarantined for a week. Great news for keeping COVID down in Qatar, bad news for the tourism industry who I am sure were gearing up for an influx of Saudi tourists.

Local community transmission is still over 100 a day so that slight uptick continues. It looks like other GCC countries like Bahrain are seeing big increases, and it's possible a third wave is on the horizon. I think Qatar's measures will at least keep that more-contagious UK strain out of the country, others in the region might not be so lucky.

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- starting to get worse

 After the months of slow decline in the number of cases my worries have come true and the case rate is increasing again. Now the daily cases is around 200 a day, with 120-160 being community transmission. The recoveries are around 100-120 a day so the number of active cases is growing. That will likely mean deaths will start to rise.

With the new strain going around Europe and other countries Qatar tightened quarantine restrictions on incoming travelers, most now must do mandatory quarantine at a hotel instead of self-quarantine at home, especially travelers from the UK and other high-risk nations. Hopefully the new strain has not reached here.

So is the case rate increase due to the National Day celebrations? Possibly not but the timing seems about right as the increase started 10 days or so after National Day. However Qatari friends of mine have also said that wedding celebrations are happening again so a lot of socializing is occurring there, and is a likely source of cases. I'm guessing the announcement of a vaccine has been making people lax about precautions as well.

I'll hold my hands up on this one -- in the last two weeks I attended two weddings. One was essentially held in a covered porch area so was effectively outside, the other was indoors, most people wore masks and my friends and I arrived early so we would not be with crowds of people, and left after 20 minutes. Hopefully there aren't any more invites, with the case increases I would be nervous attending any more. Have only been to a shop once in the last two weeks and that was a pharmacy so I have been careful in that regards,

Today the Ministry of Health announced that they were lowering the age for vaccine access, from 70+ to 65+. You have to book an appointment but anyone 65 and older can get the vaccine now. That's good news, hopefully a second batch arrives soon so more people can get the vaccine. I'm booking an appointment as soon as I can. Apparently it is two doses, taken 2-3 weeks apart, and you would not be deemed safe to travel until a week after your second dose, so I would have a month from my first dose until I am successfully vaccinated. I am hopeful by March I can get the first dose.

Hopefully in a few months Qatar will be generally free of COVID and life returns to normal. Qatar has done really well so far given there was no second wave.  Remember how for many months Qatar had the highest per capita case rate in the world? Now, if Qatar was a US State, Qatar would be 42nd for per capita cases, and last for the death rate (by far, it's not even close to the death rate in other States). Qatar has had 245 deaths so far during the pandemic, and a few days ago the State of Kansas (roughly the same population) had 193 deaths -- in one day! That is frightening to think about.

Just a few more months everyone. Stay safe!  

Qatar Updates for December

 Okay, there's a number of things to note, I'll touch on each briefly:

-- COVID virus numbers are slowly decreasing, now you get some days where community transmission is less than 100. Not every day mind you but now the community case rate is typically 80-120 a day. There are fewer than 220 people in hospital and 22 are in ICU, again a decrease from a few weeks ago. Sadly there is still one to three deaths a week.

-- But I am planning a personal 'semi-lockdown' for a couple of weeks. Qatar's National Day was December 18th, and the festivities makes it more likely that there will be a spike in cases in the coming weeks. The Government did take things seriously though, the annual military parade on the Corniche was invite-only, no general spectating, and I believe it was limited to a couple of thousand people spread out along the parade route. A friend of mine said the invites only went to family of the soldiers on parade and all of the soldiers were tested for COVID, but I could not find confirmation of that. Still there would have been crowds gathering later to watch the fighter jet show and the fireworks in the evening, increasing the risk of virus spread. I am planning to not go to any mall/restaurant/grocery store for a few weeks as a precaution. I have enough food at home for that.

-- There was also the Qatar Football League final, the Emir's Cup, held in the new Al-Rayyan stadium. When I watched it on TV there were a lot of people in the crowd and I was surprised that was allowed. It turns out a friend went to the match and he told me that to be allowed in you had to get a COVID test 24-48 hours before the match, so all of the spectators had been tested! My team (Al-Saad) won.

-- The COVID vaccine will arrive this week. Qatar has approved two vaccines so far, the Pfizer and the BioNTech vaccines but I couldn't find any reports as to how many doses will arrive. The Government has announced that the vaccine will be prioritized for three groups: over 65s, people with chronic health conditions, and healthcare workers. That's not as many people as you might think, according to the Statistics Authority only 1.36% of the population is over 65 (approximately 40,000 people). Depending on how many doses arrive the Government might be able to roll it out to others soon.

-- No Christmas celebrations for me this year. Normally I would have dinner with friends but someone in the family has chronic health issues so they are not having people over. And as I mentioned above I intend to not go to restaurants for a while. That's okay though, I'd rather be cautious as the vaccine is just around the corner.

-- People are still of the belief that an announcement ending the blockade will take place at the GCC Summit on January 5th. News is full of optimistic articles that talks are progressing.

-- I was hoping to see the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction last night but unfortunately it was low on the horizon and clouds covered it. Maybe tonight I will see it. Try to see it as well if you are able to.

The Blockade Might End Shortly!

There were announcements by the Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that talks have made significant progress and that Saudi Arabia might end the blockade soon!  The other blockading countries (Bahrain, UAE and Egypt) do not appear to be involved with the talks but if a deal can be struck with Saudi Arabia then the blockade is effectively over. Qatar's only land border is with Saudi and if Qatar Airways can use Saudi airspace then the other countries will not be a hinderance.

The idea has met with mixed reactions amongst people that I know. People are happy at the thought it might end but it's been over three years now and everyone is kinda used to things being this way. Plus I don't think most Qataris are going to be traveling to Saudi anytime soon. One friend stated he wouldn't go for at least a year. It is unlikely Qataris are going to get warm welcomes from many Saudi people for a while yet. Plus, will they allow Saudis to travel into Qatar right away? Saudi is still having troubles with COVID (they report 200-300 cases a day, yet 10-20 deaths a day, which indicates the actual daily case rate is way higher, probably 3000-4000 a day).

COVID cases in Qatar have been gradually creeping down. Some days internal cases are 150-170 but today it was 108. I think you'd have to go back to May to find numbers that low. Hopefully hospitalizations decrease, it's under 300 but there are still over 30 people in ICU. I found out that Qatari who passed away recently was in the ICU for a number of months! Poor man, that must have been horrible.

If the blockade ends would I go to Saudi? Well I haven't been there yet (until recently they did not have general tourist visas that one could apply for) but given the years of tension I doubt I will be visiting anytime soon.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Vaccine Hope

Cases are still steady at 150-180 community cases each day, with 40-60 additional cases a day from travelers in quarantine. I wish the cases would lower but they stubbornly stay at the same levels. There have been 1-3 deaths a week but at least the second wave appears to be over in neighbouring Bahrain. Cases loads in other GCC countries are still fairly high.  I don't think it'll really start to go down until a vaccine is circulated.

Which of course is the big news, trials of three different vaccines have completed with great results and now all of the talk is when countries will receive them, how many doses they will get, and how they will be distributed. Talk in Qatar is the country could receive a vaccine in late-December, and a well-connected Qatari that I spoke to says the Government has already drafted up its priority list for who will receive the vaccine. Some people have wondered about whether enough people will take it or not, what if people refuse, etc. but they are thinking like Westerners. If the Qatar Government demands a expat take the vaccine your choices are: do it, have a medical exemption, or leave the country. This place isn't going to play around and cater to anti-vaxxer nonsense. So things could be back to normal soon. I expect February or March but a friend of mine in the medical field figures it'll take longer to get enough of the vaccine to create herd immunity, likely by June or July 2021. So there is still a ways to go.

Meanwhile some people are planning trips to the Maldives thanks to a travel bubble that was set up at two resorts. The resorts are separate islands and will only have guests from Qatar and the staff have already quarantined for two weeks. So you fly from Qatar to the Maldives on Qatar Airways (you have to book the resorts from Qatar Airways), go straight to the resort and stay there, full board. When you fly back to Qatar you don't need to quarantine because you were only at the resort. It's a neat idea and a number of people here are planning trips. Not me though, the minimum stay is five days and I'm not the kind of person who can just sit on a beach for five days. 

No trips for me, I'm staying put. Just need to be careful for a few more months.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - No Second Wave, Unlike Most of the World

 COVID cases are slowly lowering, now most days it is under 200. 30-50 cases are from travellers in quarantine so if you factor those out Qatar is consistently in the 140-170 cases a day now. Testing hasn't slowed down though, 8,000-10,000 tests are done everyday. People are getting tested for any type of flu or cold symptoms, a friend of mine did yesterday when he came down with a cold (he tested negative). With the border shut due to the blockade as long as Qatar keeps quarantining travellers arriving by air, and mandating protective measures like masks and use of the Etheraz app, there shouldn't be a second wave.

I sometimes use COVID statistics to remind people here just how much the Qatari Government has done. Many people do not really grasp just how well Qatar has weathered this storm and how all of its work has kept things from being much worse than it could (and should) have been. We are all aware of the second waves rampaging through Europe, the Middle East, and the US and it's bad. To think a few months ago I was pondering if the EU would put Qatar on its "low-risk" countries list, now Qatar has fewer cases per day (per capita) than most European countries. 

But the US in particular is a shocking comparison. The US is a very large country so while the overall average is scary when you get to looking at individual states you can really see how it is, or was back when the northeast had that devastating first wave.

Qatar is currently at a 4.77% infection rate, only Bahrain is higher. The US is at 3.1%, UK at 1.75% and Canada at 0.7%, but when you look at individual US states, the worst are:

North Dakota: 7.12%

South Dakota: 6.25%

Iowa: 4.84%

Wisconsin: 4.59%

Nebraska: 4.25%

So around 7% of the population of the Dakotas has caught COVID. Wow!

But it's the death rate that is tragic.  Qatar is at 82 per million people, quite low compared to the West. Canada is at 278, UK at 721, France at 619 and Italy, burned in peoples' minds as one of the worst-hit countries, is at 685. So how bad was that initial wave in the US northeast? Here's the top five US States by death rate:

New Jersey: 1,865

New York 1,739

Massachusetts: 1,472

Connecticut: 1,310

Louisiana: 1,298

As far as I can tell all five of those States have death rates higher than any country in the world. New York and New Jersey have nearly triple the death rate of Italy. If Qatar had a similar death rate an additional 5,000 people would have died (currently it is at 232 dead).

Qatar quelled the pandemic and treated everyone in hospital for free. It does deserve recognition for its efforts.

 

 

Qatar Coronavirus Update - Still the Same

Nothing has changed much, still hovering around 200 cases a day, travel restrictions and quarantines still in place. No new restrictions added. It could definitely be worse, other GCC countries experienced a second wave and the number of cases and deaths went up. Qatar has been spared that at least. Lots of the detected cases are from travellers returning to Qatar and sitting in quarantine, some days up to 40 cases are from travellers. Goes to show how prevalent the virus is in the world and how if you fly anywhere there is a reasonable chance someone on the plane will have COVID. Flying is still risky.

Yesterday marked a milestone, Bahrain passed Qatar for most detected cases per capita in the world (well, except the micronation of Andorra). Qatar no longer has that unfortunate title. With so many other nations having a second, or third, wave if Qatar can keep the restrictions in place and keep things to 200 cases a day or lower then Qatar will drop down the "most cases per capita" list fast. To reach Qatar's total though the US would need 15m cases (currently it's at 9m) but let's face it, many nations did not do enough testing and their reported numbers are lower than the actual. 

My life is reasonably normal now. I go to the office, meet with friends occasionally, went to the beach with some people the other day. I wear a mask always but outdoors almost no one else does. Malls and office buildings are still quite strict but shops on the street less so. Went to the mall yesterday and it was very crowded, more than I was expecting. I wasn't comfortable with that so I got a coffee to go and soon left without going grocery shopping like I planned. I figured back in June COVID would be mostly over by now in low-risk areas like Europe, boy was I naive. Multiple waves follows the pattern of the last major pandemic, the 1918 'Spanish Flu', which had three distinct waves, so I suppose there was no reason to think only one wave was going to happen this time. It's not like the world did something extraordinarily different from 1918 to stop the pandemic. We can only count our lucky stars that the mortality rate is a lot lower than initially expected. Remember when it was first going around China the mortality was thought to be as high as 3-4%. It looks like it is more around 0.3-0.5%, though we will not know for sure unless we figure out exactly how many people ultimately were infected. 

The other excitement of the day is the current uproar the Muslim world has with France, given comments by Macron and others. Lots of people here are boycotting French products and on social media I see lots of information being shared about which brands and shops are French. Most (not all though) of my Muslim friends are boycotting but non-Muslim expats don't appear to be too concerned about it.

As for the US Election the general view is 'meh'. No one is too fussed about it, Qatar has its own problems to worry about (COVID, oil prices, blockade, lack of travelling) so while everyone is aware it's happening, I don't think anyone is thinking much about what would happen afterwards. I can't wait for it to be over though, getting so sick of seeing it dominate all the news.