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. 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Omicron Driving an Increase in Case Numbers

Got my booster shot of Moderna today! Glad I was able to get that sorted. When I received my previous two doses I was a bit out of it the next day, though it was worse for the second shot. Hopefully I won't have any issues tomorrow but I will work from home just in case.

Omicron in now circulating in Qatar and community cases the last few days have been over 200 a day. And that's with hundreds of thousands of people currently out of the country for Christmas/New Year holidays. In my office there's been five cases in the last week so it certainly was making me anxious so I was trying to be careful before getting my booster. I have also changed from wearing cloth masks to KN95 masks as I believe they are better at protecting from the virus. It's not 100% of course, I'm not deluding myself, but it will help reduce the chances of catching it. Reports from around the world are showing that Omicron is really, really contagious. At least it appears to not be as deadly as Delta but it could still hospitalize vaccinated people so everyone needs to be careful. Hospitalizations are increasing here, last report had 162 people in hospital, and 18 in the ICU, a big increase from the last few weeks. They are articles in the local newspapers, it seems every day now, by the Ministry of Public Health urging people to get booster shots.

No announcements of new restrictions but many countries have been added to the travel 'red list', which means a lot of people who left on vacation will likely need to self-quarantine when they return (2 days, until their PCR results come in). I expect some level of restrictions will be announced in the coming days if case rates increase. I doubt full lockdowns but maybe back to 'phase 3'. We'll see. Hopefully Qatar does not have an Omicron 'wave' like we are seeing in the UK and US.

 

More Arab Cup, and Omicron appears.

The Government announced four cases of Omicron yesterday but all from people entering the country and who had been undergoing quarantine.

That said I expect an announcement shortly as a large-scale screening was undertaken. A week ago I had received a message asking me, since I attended an Arab Cup match, to take part of a health survey & screening by going to a health centre on the 18th (also Qatar's National Day) and get a free Covid test, and they'll also check the swab for influenza and RSV. I thought that was a good thing to take part in so I went. I figure I'll get the results today or tomorrow. I'm sure I'm fine but the survey will allow the Government to get a better idea of the presence of Covid in people who attended the matches, and they'll likely scan the samples for Omicron as well. If the overall results are not good then restrictions and lockdowns will be happening.

As for the Arab Cup the tickets came in fast and furious (having friends working in places that get hospitality tickets help) and I wound up going to three more games. Firstly the Tunisia/Egypt semi-finals at Stadium 974.

It looks a bit weird, right? Like it would be a street art museum? Well, this stadium is temporary and made up partly of shipping containers. When Qatar bid for the World Cup one of the questions was what a country of 2.5m people would be doing with eight huge stadiums, and Qatar stated that some of them would be modular, to be dismantled, donated to developing countries, and reassembled. That's what Stadium 974 is (named 974 as it is Qatar's phone country code and is the number of shipping containers used). 

The atmosphere inside was great and I had seats in the corner, between the Tunisian fans and the Egyptian fans. It was pretty noisy.

But I couldn't stay for the whole match as my friends and I had tickets to the other match that evening, the Qatar/Algeria semi-final match at Al Thumama Stadium. The place would be full so we needed to give ourselves lots of time to get there.

It's a beautiful (and permanent) stadium. designed to look like a ghafiya, a white head covering men wear underneath the ghurtra.

Much like Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor we had to park across a busy highway from the stadium but they had a nice pedestrian walkway over the road.

This time we had really nice seats, right in the middle.

It was a good game, lots of crazy things. In the end the injury time wound up being something like 19-20 minutes (might be a new record?) because of all of the drama, but Qatar lost 2-1 due to a last-play penalty kick by Algeria. 

While I was watching the game I showed up for a second on TV when the cameras were doing shots of the crowd. I then received messages from friends with screenshots showing me (I cropped the photo so my friend's faces aren't shown). 

Another person at work also commented that they saw me on TV. I think because I was wearing a suit in a sea of white thobes I stood out on the screen.

Qatar is not a big country and people keep an eye out for who is in the crowd and quickly circulate stills on social media. Case in point, there were some ladies seated a row behind us and a few seats down but from the angle of the TV camera they looked like they were in the same row. One of my Qatari friends who was with us at the game told me he woke up the next morning to his wife holding a screenshot of the picture and asking, "Who are these ladies you're sitting next to?".  Lol.

Naturally the home crowd was disappointed as Qatar was not going to be playing in the final but it did mean that there were tickets to be had for the Third Place match between Qatar and Egypt on the 18th, so a bunch of us went to that. It was at Stadium 974 as well.

This time we had nosebleed seats.

The game was not particularly exciting, Qatar fielded many of their 'B-team' players and brought on the big guns in the second half. Even then the score was 0-0 and it went to penalties, with Qatar getting the win.

The final (Tunisia v Algeria) was that evening in Al Khor, but we watched it on TV at a majlis. It was an intense game, both teams really came to win and after much drama Algeria pulled through 2-0, with the second goal occurring on the last play to officially kill Tunisia's hopes of a comeback. 

So, a busy last few days. I didn't even go see any of the National Day events as I was busy watching soccer games.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Slight Increase in Cases but Hospitalizations Decreasing

For the last while community cases have been at 140-170 a day, a slight increase from before, and there were two deaths, the only two in the last month or so. Surprisingly hospitalizations are down, 79 are in the hospital now and 10 are in ICU (it was 90/17 a few weeks ago).

Qatar has not reported any cases of the Omicron variant but I wonder if it is here and responsible for the decreased hospitalizations. Preliminary data from other countries seems to indicate that, while more contagious than Delta, in vaccinated people it produces generally milder symptoms than Delta. In Qatar almost all people aged 12+ are vaccinated so there aren't many unvaccinated adults for Omicron to hospitalize. 

There have been close calls. A friend's mother tested positive and he had visited her the day before he met with myself and some friends. One day isn't enough for him to be contagious and he's quarantining now, taking Covid tests every two days (all negative so far). His main worry was his infant son, who Grandma took care of that day. Sure enough, nine days later the baby tested positive. I was told grandma and baby are fine. Despite the unlikelihood of being able to spread Covid to people he met one day after being exposed many of my friends have been tested. All negative. I was tested as well seven days after the exposure (PCR, not the rapid test that I did to go see the Qatar/UAE game) and was negative.

The Arab Cup is still on, if Omicron was starting to spread in Qatar I would not expect any restrictions/lockdowns until after the tournament on December 18th. If hospitalizations are decreasing then maybe restrictions won't be necessary.

2021 FIFA Arab Cup

This is one of my few posts not focused on COVID since the pandemic started. Qatar is hosting the Arab Cup (basically teams from the Middle East and North Africa) and a friend of mine managed to get a bunch of us tickets to the hottest match in town -- Qatar vs the UAE. 

I took a rapid test that morning as a precaution since I'll be sitting in close quarters with friends for a few hours, thankfully it was negative, so I was on my way to the city of Al Khor where the match would be that evening. A friend has a house there and hosted a BBQ for us before the game.

The game was at 10:00pm so we watched the 6pm game (Tunisia vs Oman) at the house then went to the stadium. The traffic was crazy, I mean you would expect that but I mean it was crazier than that. Leaving at 8pm to get to a stadium a few kilometers away there were times I wasn't sure we would make it in time for the kickoff. In the end we had to take a backroad to find a roundabout route to the large swath of desert serving as the parking lots. From there it was still a long walk, the parking lots were on the other side of the highway from the stadium. There is a huge pedestrian walkway over the highway for that purpose but it meant thousands of people walking to the walkway and then walking to the stadium from there.

We eventually got to the stadium, called Al Bayt (the house), one of the largest stadiums in Qatar. Built for the upcoming World Cup, it's a really cool design meant to look like an Arabic tent.

In terms of organization once we actually got to the parking lot things went pretty smoothly, there were plenty of staff and signs to direct you to where you needed to go. The biggest issue was getting to the parking lots, there were simply not enough roads/entrances to handle all of the traffic. When I was crossing the pedestrian bridge (at around 9:30) I could still see hundreds and hundreds of cars backed up into the highway trying to get into the parking lots. There was no way those people were going to make it in time for the kickoff. It'll be the main thing that Qatar will need to work on for next year's tournament, reconfiguring things so that more cars can enter the parking area in a short span of time. Getting through security, getting tickets checked, etc., that went fine.

Inside there were tens of thousands of people. It wasn't full when we arrived but that's because there were thousands more trying to find parking and getting in. It was eventually full. We had great seats on the 16th row near one of the goals.

Unluckily for us the UAE goal was on the other side of the field because the first half was a total rout.

Yep, 5-0 for Qatar after the half. UAE were making tons of mistakes, giveaways, and penalties, I think that alone counted for four of the goals. It was crazy -- and all happening at the other side of the field. Not that any of the Qatari fans cared. They were so happy.

And that's how the score ended, when the UAE goal moved to our side there were no goals. A couple of good chances, and I would say Qatar was the stronger side in that half as well, but no goals from either team. The fans were thrilled.

Getting home took a while as almost everyone was funneled to the pedestrian bridge in order to get back to the parking lots. It got crowded but there was some level of crowd control to try to keep it spaced out and not have everyone crushing each other. In the end it took about 45 minutes to reach the car and I was home close to 2:00am. 

All in all a great night, Qatar just needs to work on the parking access. The Arab Cup is a practice run for the World Cup next year (and there'll be 10x as many people showing up) so the Government is using the Arab Cup to figure out what is working and what isn't.

         

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Cases Up, Spreader Events, and Omicron Variant

Community cases in Qatar remain in the 100-150 range a day. Not great, better than most countries, but still too high for my liking. Hospitalizations are up slightly with about 90 people in hospital and 17 in ICU. No one has died in the past week or so.  

I can't see the number of cases decreasing any time soon because of two major events. As for many parts of the world there were Black Friday shopping events and the malls were PACKED. I forgot about Black Friday and tried to stop by a mall to pick up something. Parking was completely full and even the side streets near the mall were full of cars. I decided not to go in -- if the malls were that crowded it was just a super-spreader event waiting to happen.

Also the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup is in Qatar from November 30 to December 18 so I expect a lot of tourists and crowds at the stadiums and entertainment events.

The timing is unfortunate because there is a new Covid variant of concern, the Omicron variant, discovered in southern Africa. Countries have already stopped flights from that area but it might be too little too late as cases of the variant have been detected in the UK, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. The Australian cases entered the country on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha, where they had transited from South Africa, so there is a chance Omicron is in Qatar now as well. Scientists will have better data after a few weeks but given the mutations in the Omicron variant they are expecting that vaccines will have reduced effectiveness. 

It will be an interesting few weeks as we see how this develops. Lockdowns and restrictions might be coming again.          

Qatar Coronavirus Updates – case rates, boosters, statistics

Community cases are steady at 100-120 a day. Hospitalizations are in the 90s now, a slight increase. I spoke with someone in the medical field and they told me that many of the cases were in kids due to schools being open -- but not all. Might be issues with vaccine effectiveness waning.

Which might explain why yesterday the Government announced they were moving forward the booster shot timing. Before you were eligible eight months after your second dose but they announced it will now be six months, a timing similar to other Western countries. I got my second dose in mid-June so I still have a month before I can get my booster. No word yet on when the vaccine will be approved for children aged 5-11 though.

As an aside I have been seeing various statistics regarding Qatar’s vaccination rate on websites, whether John Hopkins or CTV VaccineTracker, and they have Qatar’s rate too low (79-80%). The reason for this is they use population statistics that are old and based on projections of what Qatar’s population would be, rather than just going to the Qatar Government’s Planning and Statistics Authority to get the real number, which they update monthly. Granted, these websites don’t have time to update population stats for the 200+ countries in the world but they are using a population of 2.8m and it’s actually around 2.6m, which makes a big difference.

Per the Ministry of Public Health, 84.8% of the population of Qatar has had both doses of a vaccine. It’s likely why case rates are still really low compared to the US, UK, and many other countries in Europe.

Interesting update on travel, the UK was recently added to Qatar’s “red list” for travel. Not good news for Brits. I wasn’t planning on going there anytime soon anyway though.

Well, guess I'll just chill and wait for the latest wave in Europe to calm down. It'll be nice when I get a booster shot though.

 

Qatar Coronavirus Updates – Cases Rising Again

Worrying developments as cases have been slowly creeping up over the last few weeks.  In the last couple of days there been more than 100 community transmissions a day, and yesterday one person passed away.  Hospitalizations are up into the 60s now (from a low in the 40s) but the number in the ICU is stable at around 11-13.

Unfortunately the Government doesn’t publish age breakdowns of the cases.  Is it mostly among kids because they’re back in school? Amongst older people for whom the vaccine effectiveness is starting to lessen? I don’t know.

If the trend continues I expect various restrictions to be back in place but I’m not sure to what extent. The FIFA Arab Cup starts in Doha at the end of the month and tens of thousands of fans are expected (especially from Saudi Arabia) so I doubt the Government will go into lockdowns. The addition of tourists for the event is not going to help things though and cases will likely increase further.

Per capita cases are still low compared to most Western countries but it’s not a good sign heading into the new year.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates – Getting Back to Normal, Awaiting Vaccines for Children

 In Qatar things continue to improve and restrictions continue to be lifted.  Now the country is at roughly 40 community cases a day and almost everyone who can be vaccinated has been (83% of the total population has received the vaccine).  Unfortunately there’s still about 40 people in hospitals, and 10 in ICU. A person in their 80s passed away yesterday from it.

Travel restrictions have changed in that most countries are now on the “green list”.  One twist though is that you no longer need a PCR test to fly into Qatar – but you do have to get one within 36 hours of arrival. I think Qatar is tired of people getting fake or questionable PCR tests in other countries, now you must have a test done here.

From a peak of about 40,000 doses of vaccine given out every day we’re now at 3-5 thousand doses, and I think that includes people now getting booster doses.  Almost everyone who is eligible has the vaccine now, so everyone is waiting for the announcement regarding kids aged 5-11.  There are rumors of course, we could see something in the next couple of weeks, but once it is approved either in the U.S. are the EU it’ll be rolled out in Qatar for sure. I don’t think the uptake for children will be as high as it has been for adults, my guess is some vaccinated parents will still be a little bit leery of giving it to small children, but even with moderate take up the percentage of the population vaccinated should reach 90%. Between that and boosters there’s not much more that can be done.

While restrictions on wearing masks outdoors have largely been lifted almost everyone continues to wear them, which is fine with me. I still get a bit anxious about COVID at times, especially when there are situations that I consider higher risk.  Recently someone I know just got back from visiting Russia, a country that is in the midst of a huge COVID wave and has real issues with vaccination rates. My friend is vaccinated but even so for the next while I’ll try to stay away from him and his friend group just to make sure they aren’t a “breakthrough” case, which increases the risk that they could be giving it to other people. Getting a PCR test within 36 hours of landing isn’t really a guarantee, I think if you are exposed to COVID it could take a few days for you to build up enough virus to show up on a PCR test.

While the pandemic continues to rage in other parts of the world, here in Qatar it might be nearing an end. We’ll see once vaccinations are rolled out to children. I remain hopeful.