Qatar Coronavirus Updates (and Economy Update)

I have now found out that the Ehteraz app is indeed a proximity detector. Yesterday I received this message on my phone:

So it appears that someone in my building had contact with a confirmed case so they are self-quarantining (if the person had tested positive they would be at a quarantine center). I was in my apartment so I was not at risk from whomever this was. So the good news is the proximity detector works, the bad news is that because it is someone in my building I am now receiving this message numerous times, today I got it four times so far.

As for the virus, cases are still well over 1,000 a day, today it was 1,500+ but recoveries are now outpacing the new cases most days. There are still over 200 people in ICU and everyday deaths are being reported, although today it was only one. Seventy people have died so far from the virus. On the 15th phase 1 of lifting restrictions occurs but it is not a significant lifting (thankfully). Many mosques will reopen but limit the number of worshippers. I spoke to some friends today and none are planning to attend mosques yet, they will continue to pray at home for the next while.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The economic downturn caused by the virus and the oil price crash has led the Qatari Government to announce a dramatic change. Ministries, other Government organizations, and entities sponsored by the Government, must slash 30% of expat staff costs effective immediately. It can be salary cuts, layoffs, a mixture of both, it doesn't matter how the 30% reduction is accomplished but it must be done. Qataris will be fine of course, though some Government benefits, such as paying out excess vacation time, will cease for Qataris as well so even citizens will face some impacts.

While this news is perhaps not too surprising, countries like Saudi Arabia recently enacted economic measures like sales tax increases (from 5% to 15%) and removing some worker benefits, this is the first all-around cut by the Qatar Government focusing on expat workers. There are also layoffs in the private sector, announced by companies such as Qatar Airways (~9,000 employees). The oil industry will also surely be laying off people, how many is hard to predict.

The impact will be significant and it will take some time for the economy to adjust. There will be the immediate impact of layoffs but it is the knock-on effect that will be hard to gauge: the already softening rental market will take a hit, private schools will face huge uncertainty regarding enrollment in September, workers who have their pay cut might search for another job and leave when they find one, and consumer spending will definitely take a hit just as the retail sector is gearing up to reopen. Based on experience with the previous oil price crash in 2014 large and expensive goods will face the biggest hit -- no one will buy a new car or furniture if they are uncertain about their job (or took a big pay cut), and bankers are definitely going to be worried about the bank's personal loans and whether people will be able to repay them. Rental housing/apartment construction will likely grind to a near-halt, which means layoffs in the construction sector in the next 3-12 months. So the economy will take time to re-adjust to the new post-lockdown reality.

The oil price is not going to rebound anytime soon and current prices of $35-40 a barrel is not enough to balance the Government's budget, so the cuts are here to stay. It is just a matter of how the economy reacts over the next year. I imagine that other Governments in the Gulf will be watching closely and may implement similar cuts, Kuwait in particular has faced a lot of calls internally to cut the expat workforce in the country.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Government Announces Plan to Lift Restrictions

Yesterday the Government held a press conference to announce the plan for lifting restrictions in Qatar. Soon the presentation/plan was all over social media -- I received three separate copies (two Arabic, one English) within 20 minutes of each other.

The timing might seem a bit odd as Qatar is still in the middle of the peak. Today there were 1,721 new cases and, sadly, five people died, the most that have died in a single day yet. However in the last three days the number of daily recoveries has been roughly the same as the number of new cases. The Government pointed out how everyone's efforts truly did flatten the curve so there is a manageable caseload over a longer period of time, ultimately preventing a situation like what occurred in Italy, Spain or Wuhan.

I think one of the reasons for announcing the plan now is to reassure people. The school term is about to end for the summer and this is when hundreds of thousands leave the searing heat for long vacations either back home or in more temperate places. Problem though, currently expats can leave Qatar but cannot return. When will that be lifted? Will the country then require two-week quarantines? What about the next school year, will kids go back to school? And when can businesses plan to reopen? I think that is why the Government announced the plan now, so that everyone can plan accordingly. It is not because the virus is subsiding now. The plan covers the entire summer, it's not like everything will be open next week.


The Government will do a 4-phase rollout:

Phase 1 - June 15th: some mosques can open, as can some shops and malls, but with restrictions as to capacity. On an essential basis an expat can leave and return to Qatar but they are subject to two-week quarantine at a hotel (and the person must pay for the hotel stay). Private clinics can have limited opening (with capacity and other restrictions).

Phase 2 - July 1st: Gatherings of up to 10 people can now be held, parks & beaches (but not playgrounds) open, all malls can open with capacity restrictions, some restaurants as well, offices can have up to 50% of staff working in the building (originally 20%).

Phase 3 - August 1st: Gatherings of up to 40 people, expats returning from low-risk areas might not require quarantine, playgrounds open, increased capacity for malls & restaurants & private clinics, gyms and barbershops can now open at reduced capacity. Offices can have 80% of the workforce at the premises.

Phase 4 - September 1st: Restrictions essentially lifted (I'm guessing except for things like wearing masks and social distancing). Expats returning from high-risk areas might need quarantine.



So the Government appears to think the virus will have subsided significantly by August, which seems reasonable. The phase timings are subject to change of course if things suddenly get worse.

The timing of opening barbers is important as August 1st will be during Eid Al-Adha. Traditionally people wear new clothes and have haircuts at that time to look their best so barbers will be in high demand.

It also does mean I will be in my apartment until August at least. Friends are already planning small majlis gatherings in July and I might go occasionally depending on if things start to settle down in Qatar. Luckily I also have plans to go on vacation in mid-August and return in early September, so hopefully everything goes in accordance with the Government plan so that I'll be able to return.

The Qatar Blockade -- Now Three Years

With all the craziness going on in 2020 I am willing to bet most people outside of the Middle East forgot that Qatar is still under a blockade by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. It has been three years now since that day it was declared.

Needless to say everyone here is used to this 'new normal' and life has moved on. Three years ago when it first happened it was a nervous time. Was Qatar going to be invaded? Will there be a war? I got a bit jumpy whenever I heard military planes flying overhead. But everything settled into a blockade.

Over time Qatar pushed for a lot more self-sufficiency. There is now a dairy farm for milk, greenhouses for vegetables, warehouses for storing extra foods, factories to produce things domestically that were once imported, new Qatar Airways routes, the Qatari Government really stepped up during the crisis and got things happening. It was actually impressive how quickly they adapted to the blockade and changed how they did things.

This served Qatar well during the pandemic. There was already plenty of food in warehouses, factories producing sanitizer, and I'm willing to bet many of the field construction and other medical plans were part of their preparations in case the blockade got ugly, which they them implemented for the pandemic instead. If you look at my blog posts from March you'll read about all the stuff they were doing to prepare for the pandemic, while other countries were in denial or telling people to inject disinfectant. That 18,000-bed quarantine centre seemed like an overreaction when the Government announced it -- but they were right and by May it was needed.

Will the blockade ever end? Not in the short-term I doubt. Some of my friends were upbeat about some diplomatic developments but I have heard this sort of thing numerous times over the years and am skeptical it will resolve things. The biggest issue is how to end this yet have everyone save face? Saudi/UAE sent a list of demands three years ago, Qatar complied with none of them, and since then it's been a propaganda war with media in the blockading countries saying all sorts of things about Qatar. That will be hard to step back from and go, "oops, sorry about that".


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In Coronavirus news the Government loosened some restrictions. People can exercise outside without a mask (maintain distancing though), restrictions on the number of people in a car has been lifted, and most retail shops are now allowed to open except personal services such as barbers and spas. I don't think shops in malls are allowed to open yet though (I could be wrong). Lifting the restrictions is at an odd time, new cases are still 1500-2000 a day. Four people died today as well (49 total) so Qatar is not over the peak yet. Maybe the Ehteraz app is working well and allowing the Government to trace cases better. No changes to expat travel -- expats can leave if they wish but cannot enter the country.

Anyway, I'm still staying home.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Most Cases per Capita in the World

New cases are fluctuating, sometimes 1600ish, sometimes over 2000 a day. 1,901 new cases were announced today for a total of 62,160. Over 2% of the population have been diagnosed with the virus now, a greater % of detected cases than any other country.

Deaths are also occurring at a rate of 2-3 a day. 45 have died so far. It's the age ranges that worry me sometimes, people in their 40s and 50s are succumbing to the virus. It was expected though, because most of the population are working expats deaths would tend to be in the younger age range so be more infrequent than in the West. The death rate is still incredibly low given the number of cases.

The huge spate of recoveries has slowed. It turns out that international protocols changed: instead of releasing someone from quarantine after a series of negative tests, they can be released after 14 days of the first positive test. This resulted in something like 15,000 people being released from quarantine over four days. Now recoveries will mirror how many were diagnosed two weeks ago (today was 1,501). It should take some pressure off of the quarantine facilities at least.

Not really seeing a decline yet. Staying put at home. A friend bought me groceries during one of his shopping runs so I am set for at least six more weeks without needing to leave the apartment.

What I Get Up to Staying at Home

Decided to see how my new "lockdown beard" works with a Qatari thobe and gurtra.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates – Steady, Likely at the Peak

Daily cases were high but holding steady at 1500-1800 a day. Today however was a new record, 1,967, and the total cases is at 50,914. However the number of cases recovering each day exceeded the new cases for the first time, at 2,116. Typically 1,300-1,600 were recovering each day now so, with luck, over the next week it will reach a point where recoveries consistently exceed new cases, and the curve will start to decline.

With the increase in cases the number of deaths is increasing. The last few days 2-4 people are dying a day. Total deaths is now at 33. Recall that nine days ago it was 15 deaths. One of the people who died today was 25 years old.

While all of this is tragic Qatar did manage to achieve a key goal. Remember how in March and April it was all about "flattening the curve" to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. Well the countries efforts appeared to have bought it a lot of time -- at least two months to prepare. While the virus ravaged Europe, then America, Qatar had relatively few cases so had time for preparing hospitals, quarantine facilities, back-up plans in case the current hospitals get full, and so forth. In addition, because the emergency is starting to recede in Europe, if things get really bad Qatar will likely be able to call on resources from Europe such as ventilators and medical personnel. Last month Qatar had been sending medical supplies to countries such as Italy to assist them with the outbreak so I'm sure they'd return the favour if needed. Over 200 people are currently in ICU but Qatar still has space in the hospitals for more patients. Had this happened in March it might have been a bigger problem for medical services.

The Government also announced the lifting of a restriction. Starting June 1st the ban on Qatari citizens travelling will be lifted and they will be allowed to leave the country. Currently Qataris were only allowed to fly into the country (and be quarantined by the Government for two weeks) but not allowed to leave the country. Expats were always able to leave but were not allowed to return into Qatar (that restriction is still in place). This is why India has been able to have repatriations flights for its citizens. The effort has ramped up and now there are something like 7-10 flights a week to take Indians back home. Other countries such as Nepal did not close their airports so did not need the huge repatriation efforts that India is doing -- Qatar Airways is still flying to many countries so if there are flights then a citizen from that country can just take the Qatar flight home.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A note on hot weather and the virus. Qatar has the highest number of cases per capita in the world after micronation San Marino (and Qatar will likely pass them in about 3-4 days to have the highest per capita cases in the world). The average high here is 42 degrees Celsius. Hot weather is not preventing the virus spread. If anyone tells you about hot weather killing the virus tell them about Qatar. People hoped that Covid-19 would be similar to "regular" flu and subside in the summer but it appears to have been wishful thinking.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I have essentially been in my apartment for 72 days now. I'm doing okay, not going as stir crazy as many people are. I'm a person who enjoys solitude and living on my own so that helps. No need for a grocery run either -- a friend just picked up some groceries for me during his grocery run. I shouldn't even need to go get groceries until the virus subsides here. A haircut would be nice though.

Eid Mubarak Everyone

Well, Ramadan is officially over. Eid Al-Fitr has begun and now I can eat during the day again. I celebrated with an oatmeal breakfast and coffee this morning (at home of course).

It is so strange going through Ramadan without doing any of the usual activities:

Watching them fire the Ramadan Cannon
Watching the Corniche car parade
Meeting friends for iftars or sohours at hotels
Going to Katara to watch the Garangao celebrations
Going to empty malls in the afternoon, or marveling at the crowded malls around midnight

None of that happened this year.

The Government is worried about Eid of course, a time when people do lots of visiting to friends and relatives. The Government is encouraging people to forego personal visits this year to prevent the spread of the virus. I hope many will listen but I am not too sure. The Government has a right to be concerned, coronavirus cases have been 1500-1800+ per day this week and the number of hospitalizations and deaths are rising. In the last two days four people have died, bringing the total to 23. Things are still quite serious here.


Tonight my friends and I will meet in a virtual majlis. It is the only way to safely do Eid-celebrating right now.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- The Gov't is Serious About the App

Another day and sadly another record, 1,830 cases detected in Qatar in the last 24 hours. At least the daily recoveries are picking up, it's now around 600-900 a day. Unfortunately it is not outpacing new cases and the number of people in hospitals, and admitted to ICU, keeps growing. A Ministry spokesman noted that a patient admitted to ICU is there for two to three weeks, even longer if they have other underlying illnesses.

Also, sadly, two more people passed away, bringing the number to 19. The two who died were aged 50 and 43, around my age! Just a reminder of why one needs to be careful.

Today is the day that people in Qatar must have downloaded and started using the Ehteraz tracker app. And the Government is not kidding about this. I went out this afternoon to pick up an iftar meal from my Qatari friend and his father and to my surprise came across a police checkpoint on the road. The police were asking everyone to show the Ehteraz app working on their phones! I assume they were also checking that everyone was wearing masks, no more than two to a car etc, but that is easy enough to check. So I had to open my phone and show them that I had the app and that it was working.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tomorrow is likely the last day of Ramadan. It was so odd spending it at home. When the virus restrictions started happening I figured it would be over before Ramadan. How wrong I was.

Two Months of Staying in the Apartment

I have now been in my apartment for two months. Aside from one trip to the grocery store, and picking up iftar meals from that kind Qatari gentleman, I have not left the apartment, not even for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Enjoy this before and after photos of me:

Yes I could trim the beard but I like growing it as a 'legacy' of this difficult time. I just wish I could straighten it instead of my beard being this semi-wavy mess. After this is all over I might keep the beard if I can neaten it up a little.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As required by the Government I downloaded the Ehteraz coronavirus tracking app. It does have some nice features:

Here's the main screen showing my health status. Green means 'good health', i.e. the Government is not aware of you having the virus or are at risk of having it. The color would change if you were in quarantine or confirmed to have it. The colour will go grey if you are suspected to be exposed. I think if the Government detects a case of the virus then they will use the app to determine who was near the person at which point they will turn your colour grey and you'll probably receive a notice to go get tested.

The latest daily case information is available on the app.

And announcements by the Ministry of Public Health are sent directly to you, with notifications appearing on your phone when a message comes in.


Hopefully the app helps the Government get a handle on the outbreak. One more person died today and more people have been placed in ICU.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates – Might be at the Peak (I hope)

Qatar continues to have significant daily cases, anywhere from 1100-1600+ a day. Today was 1,637. Large numbers but relatively stable. Maybe this is the peak?

The Ministry of Health is now providing additional statistics with the daily reports (covid19.moph.gov.qa) including the number of tests, hospitalizations and so forth. There are almost 30,000 active cases now and 1,452 are in hospital, with 163 people in ICU. Despite the increase in hospitalizations the number of deaths is still low. One more person passed away a couple of days ago, bringing the total to 15.

What is worrisome is that 4,487 tests were done yesterday, which means over a third of tests came back positive.




Ramadan is almost over, I think Eid Al-Fitr is the 23rd or 24th. The Government has announced additional restrictions:

a. Shops will be closed until May 30th, except grocery stores and pharmacies. I think restaurants can still do pick-up and delivery.

b. Everyone now has to download an app on their phone, Ehteraz, that will allow the Government to track movements to improve contact tracing. It apparently will also alert you if you are near someone who has the virus or possibly has it. (I think the Government updates a colour code depending on your status and the app then warns others nearby?). It used to be voluntary to use the app but it will now be mandatory.

c. Limits to the number of passengers in vehicles, including buses.

And I mentioned in my last post that wearing masks is now mandatory pretty much at all times if you are outside the house. You could face fines and up to three years in jail if you don’t, which generated a bit of internet buzz and got some international media coverage. I think the penalty is there to discourage Qataris, at least the ones that are rich enough to laugh off any fine.

The upcoming Eid holiday has been extended to support the business closures. Typically for Eid Al-Fitr banks are closed for three days but the Central Bank announced this year it will be five days, Sunday the 24th to Thursday the 28th. I have never seen the Central Bank ever do longer than three business days for Eid Al-Fitr. This means banks will essentially be closed for nine days including the weekends. Government offices will be closed longer than that. And I already mentioned that stores will be closed until May 30th.


The country will not be relaxing restrictions anytime soon I’m afraid.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Over 28,000 Total Cases

Today was another record unfortunately, with 1,733 new cases in one day. Total cases is 28,272. No one has died in the last few days so the death toll is still at 14.

The virus must be spreading heavily in neighbourhoods and compounds with low-wage workers. The crowded conditions are ideal for spreading the virus. I can't see how else it would be spreading at such a rate as to infect over 1500 a day. The Government has now announced that as of Sunday wearing masks at all times is mandatory for everyone when they are outside their home (except when driving a car on your own)

Hospital space is still fine and the Government continues to open more facilities. Recently they opened up a 500 bed recovery unit for people who have been through the worst and want to recover in a facility instead of self-quarantining at home. The article gives some insight as to why it seems to take 4-5 weeks for a case to fully recover. In Qatar after a person has been deemed fit to leave the Covid-19 hospitals (there's four of them now) the person must still isolate for two more weeks, only after that they will be considered recovered if they no longer test positive for the virus. So if a person spends 2-3 weeks in hospital they still have 2 weeks of quarantine to go before being declared recovered.

At the moment Qatar has the highest per capita infection rate in the world (behind micronations San Marino and the Vatican) but one of the lowest death rates. I explained in earlier posts it is likely due to the demographics, the majority of the population in Qatar are expat workers in their 20s-40s so are less susceptible to complications from Covid-19. Interestingly I think this plays out when you look at the other nearby countries:



Qatar has 2.8m people and Qataris make up only 10-12% of the population so there are a limited number of elderly in the country. There are some expat elderly here but not a lot. 28,272 cases, 14 deaths.

UAE has 10m people and a similar local population, Emiratis are around 10% or so of the people in the country. But the UAE has a much more extensive property development market, especially in Dubai, so has a greater population of elderly people from other countries who live/retire there. 21,084 cases, 208 deaths

Kuwait is about 4.7m, doesn't attract expats with property developments but the population is about 30-40% Kuwaiti so there are also more elderly. 11,975 cases, 88 deaths

Bahrain's population is 1.4m and about 50% local but its death rate is lower than places like UAE and Kuwait. 6,069 cases, 10 deaths.

Saudi Arabia's population is larger than all of the others combined at ~30m and is about 65% local. 46,869 cases, 283 deaths.



My self-isolation continues, it's been over 50 days now, I think 56, and it's not going to end anytime soon.

Qatar Coronavirus Update - over 1,100 new cases a day now!

In the last four days the number of daily cases has been over 1,100, and on one of those days it was 1,311 -- the highest amount of cases in one day yet.

Is this the peak? I sure hope so cause this is getting wild. Qatar is at 23,623 cases now. If the 1000+ cases a day continues then in 4-5 days a full 1% of the population will have had the virus (28,000 cases is 1%). That is A LOT! It's the equivalent of 3.3 million cases in the US or 350,000 cases in Canada. Neither country is close to that, at least under the official figures.

Two more people have unfortunately passed away, bringing the total to 14. It's tragic, but I guess a lot of countries wish their death rate would be that low.

Recoveries per day are still in the 100-200 range so it hasn't come close to the number of new cases discovered. That means more strain on health resources. However most of the cases are mild and don't need hospitalization, a couple of days ago a Ministry of Health spokesman said that there are still plenty of beds available for treating patients, and plans are in place to open more if needed. Mass testing of potential contacts of existing cases are discovering the mild cases.

At this rate it will be a long time before restrictions in Qatar are loosened. European countries are either talking about it or have already relaxed some restrictions. Canada as well. Qatar isn't even planning it yet. I can't blame them though.

14 Years in Qatar

With all of the Coronavirus isolation I completely forgot that as of May 1st I have been in Qatar for 14 years! I did not plan that at all, for all I knew I would be here 3-5 years then moved on. I'm glad I stayed and personally don't have plans to leave yet. Of course if I lose my job that's another story but so far so good. We'll see how the economic downturn due to low oil prices pans out over the next year.

10 years ago I had some black-and-white photos taken by a photographer so today I figured I would recreate the poses to see how much I've aged over the decade. I couldn't get the lighting the same, and my 'lockdown beard' adds a few years, but it was an interesting contrast.

Here's hoping there'll be a few more years here.

Ramadan 2020 - Traditional Iftar Meal

Day 42 of isolation in the apartment. But yesterday I was chatting with a friend on the phone and invited me to stop by his family's majlis today to pick up some food for iftar so that have some traditional Qatari iftar food. Every Ramadan my friend's father makes extra food for iftar that he gives away to people. Since quickly going to a majlis didn't seem too risky to me I decided to head out to pick up the food. It would be a pleasant change from the lockdown food I have been eating for the last seven weeks, especially meat. The only animal protein that I've been eating is the occasional can of tuna.

When I arrived at the majlis there were dozens of containers waiting for people to pick them up. When my friend said his father makes extra food for people he wasn't kidding -- there was probably enough food to feed over 100 people. And the family does this every day of Ramadan. After chatting a bit with my friend and his father (from a safe distance) I picked up my food, thanked them kindly for the meal, and headed home for iftar.

Here is the food. It was indeed a lot of traditional food. From left to right is some harees, desserts, curried chicken on rice, some samosas (that's not its name in Arabic but I can't remember what it is) and some thareed. You don't know what harees and thareed are? That's okay, I have a blog post from 2013 that explains it.

It was nice to have something different for dinner, the thareed especially was quite nice. It was a lot of food though, it will last me at least four meals.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today is also the Qatari holiday of Garangao, which is in the middle of Ramadan (more information here). Sadly with the restrictions in place kids will not really be able to celebrate it. I think some places are offering 'virtual garangao' but I'm not really sure how that would work.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coronavirus update: Things are unfortunately holding steady. Over 900 cases today, but no deaths thankfully. Over a hundred are recovering every day but there's over 16,000 in quarantine now. I'm not sure when the curve will peak.

Stay safe everyone.

Qatar Coronavirus Update - Day 40 of Isolating, Cases Are Still High

Day 42 and in Qatar things have still not settled. Cases are up-and-down, 600+ one day, 700+ another. Today was 951 new cases for a total of 17,142. It's a lot given the size of the population. A website called worldometers has been keeping track and I sorted their table by "Total Cases per 1m population" (click on the photo for a clearer view):

Qatar is fifth on the table and the only ones above it are small countries with fewer than 700,000 people (fewer than 100,000 if we remove Luxembourg), where even a handful of cases could cause the per million number to skyrocket. I expect Qatar to be fourth on the table tomorrow. However deaths in Qatar are stable at 12, one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.

The virus is spreading mostly through worker dormitories and neighbourhoods, the crowded conditions cause the virus to spread rapidly. Qatar is focusing on contact testing so as they discover cases they test the people they are in contact with, or even entire dormitories. As Qatar tests them they are finding around 25-35% of people tested have the virus.

I think because the majority of cases are workers in compounds/dorms some people here are getting a false sense of security and figuring they will be fine since the virus is concentrated in certain areas. People seem to forget just how ubiquitous these workers are in Qatar. Yes they might live in a compounds or dormitories but during the day they're out working in malls, restaurants, parks, offices, construction sites, everywhere. And given the young age of most workers many of them will not have any symptoms of the virus, yet they can still unknowingly spread it. One should not be reckless and assume it's low risk because the virus is spreading amongst South Asian workers. Qataris are getting the virus as well.

Qatar is now implementing a random sample testing of the population. About 2500 people will be contacted by the Ministry to show up at a health centre for a survey and then be tested for the virus (this can apparently be done from your car). This is being done likely as a measure to see if the virus is in the population unknown to the contact tracers. It's a good idea and random sampling should continue.



In other coronavirus news India is going to allow special flights into the country in order to repatriate Indian stranded abroad. I think at the moment India's not allowing commercial flights into the country leaving a lot of people who want to return stranded in other countries. The Indian government expects to repatriate about 14,000 people over the next week and there will be two flights from Qatar. It's a nice gesture but it's a drop in the bucket -- in Qatar alone 40,000 Indians have registered with the embassy to be repatriated. In the UAE it is nearly 200,000.


Stay safe everyone!

Qatar Coronavirus Update - Holding Steady at 600-900 Cases Per Day

In the last four days there were anywhere from 600-900 cases a day (three days at 600+, one day at 800+). The total number of cases is now 14,096. Unfortunately two more people have passed away, a 96-year old and a 40-year old, so in total 12 people have died here.

Blood plasma treatment is starting to get back in the news as a promising treatment to help lessen symptoms. Qatar is using it now but the two deaths does show that while it might help (studies are still ongoing) it is not a miracle cure and people still need to be careful.

Restrictions in Qatar continue. The Council of Ministers agreed to extend them for a while yet. With 600+ cases a day I don't blame them. The Health Ministry held a press conference yesterday and noted that testing capability has been increased and that the majority of cases continues to be mild. In terms of age range 73% of the cases are in the age range of 15-44, people over the age of 65 are only 1.3% of cases.

Qatar has one of the highest per capita rates of infection in the world right now, at 4,893 per million people. Based on the trajectory I expect Qatar will surpass Spain (5,125/million) tomorrow or Sunday. I think this is because of Qatar's testing methodology though -- mass testing of people potentially in contact with known cases, regardless of whether they show symptoms. It caught a number of asymptomatic cases and is one of the reasons why the mortality rate is so low (the low median age of the people in Qatar is the other factor). In the West many countries could only test people who showed symptoms, were high-risk, or who went to hospital. Qatar, and similar places like Singapore, demonstrate that asymptomatic and mild symptom cases are likely more widespread in the West then the official number of cases would indicate. A number of news articles are already calling into question the figures reported in countries such as Italy and the US, and other indirect methods (for example looking at total deaths over time compared to prior years, or antibody testing a sample of people) indicates much higher case rates, and deaths.

Daily recoveries in Qatar are around 60-100 a day, far fewer than the number of new cases, so I expect Qatar will not loosen restrictions for some time yet.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Distraction of the Day: The YouTube channel "Real Stories", a channel that posts British documentaries that were broadcast on channels such as the BBC. Medical documentaries, human interest, sociology, there are tons of documentaries on the channel for people to enjoy. I personally love documentaries so I was happy to have stumbled on this channel.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Over 10,000 Cases Now

Last post I mentioned that Qatar was now identifying over 600 cases a day. Then it became over 700 . . . then 800. Today the Ministry of Health reported 929 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 10,287.

No one has died in the last three days thankfully, and now 70-100 are recovering each day. I do expect the number of deaths to increase soon. Based on a 0.2% mortality rate for 10,000 cases there would be 19-23 deaths, Qatar is currently at 10. But it takes time for the virus to take its toll, the last poor soul who died was in hospital for a month before succumbing. A spike in deaths likely won't occur for at least two weeks.

The number of cases is truly worrying. We know that in most Western countries there is underreporting due to lack of testing or only testing people who are ill, but based on the reported numbers, on a per capita basis, Qatar has more cases than Italy. Or Switzerland. Or the US. Or France. (Not as many as Spain though).

Aside from a complete and total lockdown for weeks I don't think there is much more the Qatari Government can do. Most businesses are already shut, people are working from home, people can't enter the country except Qataris who are automatically quarantined for two weeks. The country just has to keep up with the aggressive testing of people in contact with known cases and try to stay on top of things until this starts to subside.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Naturally this was the one day that I had to finally leave the apartment.

Work needed to make some upgrades on my laptop so I had to bring it in. Since I was low on groceries I figured I may as well combine this with a trip to the grocery store, my first outing in something like 35 days.

I chose a store I thought would not be too busy and figured morning would be the quietest time at the store. I brought a mask with me (as Qatar now requires them to enter grocery stores) and was there at 9:30. A man was there wiping down the carts with disinfectant, and to enter the store you first had to stand in front of a thermal camera to check your temperature. I was correct in that it wasn't that busy so it was easy to get around without getting too close to people. I think I bought enough non-perishable food to last me for six weeks.

During the drive I couldn't believe how many signs there were telling people to stay home. In the office building the same thing, and the elevators had signs for things you should do after returning home to reduce the virus risk (leaving your outer clothes by the door, immediately showering etc.) After getting the laptop upgraded at work I went back home, left all of the groceries by the door, left my outer clothing by the door, washed my hands, then my face, then my hands again, then had a shower, threw any towel I touched in the washing machine, washed my hands again, then mopped the floor near my front door with strong disinfectant. I have enough food for a while so I am not even going to touch the new groceries for at least four or five days, which should be enough to kill any virus particles that might be on the bags or the food. I'm not going to touch the discarded clothes either, those can sit there for the next two weeks for all I care.

So I think I'm good for a while, I shouldn't need to leave my apartment for at least six weeks. Unfortunately I will be anxious for the next two weeks -- any sniffle, tiredness, or feeling hot and I'll probably be wondering, "Is this it? Did I catch it?". I think the odds are slim based on the precautions that I took, but I did go outside thus going from 0% chance of catching it to a slim chance. And this while over 900 cases a day are being detected.


Hopefully things get better soon and this is the peak.

Ramadan has started! And a Coronavirus Update.

The announcement has been made, Ramadan is officially here. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is preparing for Ramadan by slowly getting yourself off of the caffeine. When fasting you are not allowed to drink anything from first light until sunset, including water and of course any tea or coffee. Some people forget about that and then on Ramadan go cold turkey from caffeine, which means splitting headaches. I have been slowly reducing the caffeine over the last two weeks, easy enough to do when you're just in the apartment all day, and today it was one weak coffee. I should be fine tomorrow.

It will be a struggle to just sit at home all day and not eat or drink anything. Literally sitting on the couch watching videos or reading I guess. I can't even do any vigorous exercise since I can't drink water. Let's see how it goes.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qatar is now averaging over 600 cases of coronavirus everyday. Total cases is at 7,764. Sadly one more person died, bringing the total to 10.

In terms of per capita cases I think Qatar is probably 6th or 7th in the world now but I think it is due to more diligent testing by the Government. If someone is found with the virus they find all contacts and test everyone so I think they are finding a lot of cases where the person wasn't showing any symptoms. If it's a worker who gets sick then they test everyone in the accommodation, which could be hundreds. I am guessing that's why the detection rate is so high. As we know, there is a lot of underreporting in Western countries, either due to lack of testing or only testing people who go to the hospital, so a lot of cases get missed from official figures. I have more faith in the accuracy of Qatar's figures than places like Italy or the US. So while the number of cases in Qatar is high it might not be as alarming as what is happening in other places. Still worrisome though. The Qatari Government might be concerned as well, it has now made wearing masks compulsory to go to grocery stores and other places.

I spoke with a Qatari friend of mine who told me that during a news conference given by the Government they pointed out most of the cases were either from workers, where mass testing is taking place, or from Qataris that are in quarantine as they have returned from abroad. There does not appear to be a lot of "free-roaming" cases, especially now that the Government doesn't allow Qataris returning from abroad to "self-quarantine" but we'll see how things are over the next few days. There were also some arrests of Qataris who were violating rules about gathering in groups, the Government is not playing around.



Ramadan Kareem everyone! Stay safe.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Statistics from the Government

Another day, another 518 cases. The total for Qatar is now at 6,533. Because this has been a recent wave almost 6,000 of the cases are listed as 'active'. Thankfully no new deaths today.

Yesterday the Government released updated statistics about the infections. It continues to demonstrate how age is a huge factor in susceptibility to the virus and thus why Qatar's young population is the main reason why the crisis is not as severe as other nations. Only 2% of cases in Qatar are people aged 65 or older, and only 5% are aged 55-64.

This has helped hospitals a lot. Yesterday the case count was 6,000 and only 72 people are currently in intensive care. 52 people have left intensive care which means that so far out of 6,000 cases only 124 people needed the ICU and only 9 people have died.

So the number of cases is alarming but so far the vast majority of cases are mild to moderate because most people in Qatar are expats in their 20s-40s. Because Qatar is doing contact tracing I am guessing that many of the cases are people who are not feeling ill at all, they were tested due to contact and found positive.

Contrast that with areas with a more 'normal' age distribution. The Province of British Columbia in Canada gives daily briefings and the numbers are a sobering comparison:


British Columbia [Qatar]

Population: 5 million [2.8 million]

Covid cases: 1,699 [6,533]

Active cases: 660 [5,910]

In intensive care: 49 [72]

Deaths: 86 [9]


This I hope highlights the importance of young people trying to stay home as much as possible instead of selfishly thinking they'll be fine since they're young. If covid gets into a community with elderly people the consequences can be devastating.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Distraction of the Day: The YouTube channel 'Real Royalty' with tons of 1-hour shows about the British Royal Family (including historical ones). Nice documentaries. This channel informed me about Prince Charles Edward, a grandson of Queen Victoria who became a Nazi! Didn't know that story before.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Virus Cases Are Growing, and Ramadan is Approaching

Things continue to be quite worrisome here, each day the Ministry of Health announces another 300-500+ cases. Today had 567 cases, sadly a new record. The total number is 6,015 now. Thankfully only nine people have died so far.

In terms of cases per million people Qatar is, if we exclude tiny countries like San Marino or Luxembourg, now in the top-10 in the world. Not good. One friend told me that part of the reason is that the Government got new & more accurate testing kits, and have stepped up testing people who have been in contact with a confirmed case. Workers dormitories are likely a major source of spread. Reports from Saudi Arabia and Singapore have also pointed to a large increase in cases due to the crowded living conditions in apartments and dorms where low-income workers live. Not all the cases are low-income workers though, the Ministry said there's been some spread amongst families as well. The death toll is really low right now but it will surely rise soon.

The number of people recovering each day is still around 20-50. I noted in my blog post on the 14th that I expected the number to remain steady or low because the big wave of cases started maybe two weeks ago so it will take time before people in that wave start to recover. But when you get 300-600 new cases each day and only 20-50 are recovering that means additional strain on the healthcare system. The Government has been saying there is a way to go yet and Qatar might not be at the peak.

I was thinking of going for groceries this week but I've decided to wait. I have plenty of food but not necessarily enough for a balanced diet. I have multi-vitamins that I can take if need be and on that basis I can stay put for at least another three weeks.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


With all of the news about coronavirus I completely forgot that Ramadan is approaching! It should start this Thursday or Friday. I will fast again this year like I've done for the last eight years or so but this might be the most difficult fast yet. In the past my strategy to not eat was two-fold: do not be in the apartment, and distract myself. So weekdays were easier than weekends, during the weekday I would go to the office to work so I had something to do to take my mind off of food. Weekends I had to come up with something to get me out of the apartment and away from food. Sometimes I would literally mall walk (everything would be shut except the grocery store so you could still walk around). It's too hot to be wandering outside much during the day. I would also eat a small iftar then leave the apartment otherwise I'd keep eating.

Well it's still too hot to walk around outside, not good if you can't drink anything until sunset, and I'm too nervous to wander around where people will be so it looks like I'll somehow have to fast all day while literally sitting feet away from food and water. This will be TOUGH.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Today's distraction: the YouTube channel 'Italia Squisita'. Italian chefs react to the most popular videos of people making the chef's signature regional dishes (hint: everyone gets it wrong, and everyone likes to use garlic even though most Italian dishes don't use it). The reactions are great. Then there are videos where the chefs show you how to make the dish 'properly'. Bolognese sauce, pesto, al fredo, pizza, it's all there. Watching it makes me hungry though.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Daily Cases Dramatically Climbing

As for the coronavirus unfortunately the number of cases in Qatar is growing rapidly. Yesterday saw a record 392 cases but today smashed that at 560 cases! The total number of cases in the country is now 4,663, which is about 1,665 per million people, similar to the UK. The Government has been testing people who were close to or in contact with known cases so I suspect that most of the cases are in worker dormitories and other crowded housing where the virus could spread easily. The Government has reiterated that everyone should stay home as much as possible.

I'm on Day 29 of staying home. The trend in cases is quite worrying so it looks like I'll be sitting in my apartment for a lot longer. I still have plenty of food (I underestimated just how much I stocked up on since January, I figured I had 3-4 weeks of food but it turned out to be more). I'm starting to run low on some key things yet every time I decided that I will go out to the grocery store in the next couple of days the case count grows so I get nervous and put it off. I can hold out another week or so but after that I will need to stock up on some essentials. Better to wait as long as possible, the longer people wait the greater the chance that treatments will be develop that can help lessen the symptoms and thus give you a better chance if you do become ill. Treatments using blood plasma with antibodies in it looks promising and I know that Qatar is trying that out in hospitals here. I also read some articles today that said an anti-viral drug called remdesivir is showing promising results in initial studies on people, and numerous other drugs are also being tested around the world. So the longer people wait before risking getting the virus the better the chance of surviving it if they do catch it.

Stay home everyone.


Today's distraction: on Youtube look up 'epicurious price points'. This is a set of videos where an expert is given samples of things they specialize in and they have to guess which one is more expensive. The expert explains their analysis and how they concluded which was more expensive and it was actually very informative. They have videos for things like cheese, coffee, chocolate, meats, wine, tea, ice cream and so forth. Give it a watch if you have time on your hands, it will help you be able to tell the difference between good and lower quality products.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Holding Steady but Daily Cases Still High

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.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Cases Reducing After a Spike

After a number of days at 200+ cases per day things have started to slow down. The last three days saw around 150 cases a day, today was 136. If the trend continues things will settle down again. Unfortunately Qatar still has had 2,512 cases, which means around 897 cases per million people (US is at 1,437 per million, UK at 1,045 and Canada at 585).

To date only six people have died, which is good. However most of Qatar's cases are fairly new and patients tend to be in the hospital a long time. If the mortality data I've been seeing is correct then Qatar's generally young population would mean a mortality rate of, let's average it to 0.5-0.7%. At the current number of cases that would mean 12-18 deaths so I expect more unfortunate announcements by the Ministry in the coming week.

Qatar is not in a total lockdown yet though many people are expecting it will be coming. All non-essential businesses had to close for the weekend so only grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants (curbside delivery, no eating in) are operating. So it is almost a lockdown this weekend. There are a number of patrols on highways and through neighborhoods to ensure people are staying home and only doing essential travel.

Qatar has also cracked down on Qataris entering the country, now most (maybe all?) have to enter mandatory quarantine for two weeks -- none of this self-quarantine anymore, too many Qataris were ignoring it. Many of the cases are from people in quarantine.


Stay home everyone!

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- the Surge Begins

Yesterday Qatar recorded 250 cases of the virus, the highest daily total yet. Until today, when 279 new cases appeared!

Qatar now has 1,604 cases of coronavirus, a caseload of 573 per million people. By contrast (data is from the John Hopkins dashboard):

USA: 991 per million
Canada: 408
UK: 714
Spain: 2,783
Italy: 2,138
South Korea: 198

Also sadly another person died, an 88-year-old Qatari man. This brings the total dead to four.

Some of the increase in cases is due to Qatar getting larger testing capability. Now they are processing 3,500 to 4,000 tests a day, which is fantastic, and even further expansion is planned. On a per capita basis it's comparable to many Western countries (1,300 to 1,480 tests per million people per day).

Still it is a bit frightening, it looks like Qatar is now entering a period where a huge number of cases are going to appear and possibly swamp the health system. As many of the cases are due to Qataris returning from abroad and not quarantining themselves the virus is likely spreading through the Qatari population. Less than 20 people recovered today so things won't get better until the number of recoveries is greater than new cases.

I'm fine, I have been home for over two weeks now. I was planning to do a grocery top-up next weekend but now I highly doubt I will. I'm definitely staying home until this 'wave' passes.

Qatar Coronavirus Update - A Breakdown of the Cases in Qatar

The number of cases increased by 126 today, for a total of 1075 cases. Thankfully no one died today, and 21 more people recovered.

The Government recently released further information about all the cases. They noted that most of this 'second wave' was due to Qataris returning from abroad and not adhering to the self-quarantine, thus infecting their families and others.

The breakdown of cases does seem to tie in with what I expected -- most of the people who catch the virus are reasonably young due to the large expat workforce here. 56% of the cases are people under the age of 45, 18% are 45-55, 10% are 55-64, and only 3% are over the age of 65. This is why despite over 1000 cases only 37 people are in intensive care. It is also likely the main reason why the number of deaths is so low, so far only three have died: two in their late 50s and one in their 80s. All apparently had preexisting medical conditions.

If this trend continues Qatar is in good shape in terms of having adequate medical facilities available. Only 3.7% of cases are currently in ICU so to overrun Qatar's current capabilities there would need to be, I'm guessing, around 15,000+ active cases in the country. As long as people keep 'flattening the curve' that won't happen. And don't forget Qatar will also have over 18,000 hospital beds ready in the next few weeks on top of at least four hospitals dedicated to Coronavirus patients.

Stay home everyone if you can.

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!

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Cases Per Day are Increasing

In the past the new cases each day were around 7-13 but two days ago it was 28, a worrying sign. Well yesterday has 44 new cases and they just announced today another 59 cases. Qatar now has 693 cases of covid-19. Looks like things are ramping up and a wave of cases are about to appear. Recoveries are still slow, just 3 today (and 51 total), which means many people have had the virus for at least 19 days. No new deaths though thankfully.

The Ministry says most of the new cases are from Qataris returning from abroad, especially the UK, and from people who were in contact with the returnees. Looks like people still don't understand what "self-quarantine" is, it means distance yourself from family members as well. And the Government continues to arrest Qataris who violate self-quarantine, 16 were arrested. It's good that the Government is arresting people.

I just don't get it -- why aren't people understanding the importance of this? Stay home! Isolate yourself if you are supposed to self-quarantine.

I'm on 11 days of not leaving the apartment, except to throw the trash out, and while I planned to do some grocery shopping next week it can wait if need be, I will still have supplies (though in a couple of weeks I might have to rely on multi-vitamins for some nutritional needs).

Stay safe everyone.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - First Death in the Country

Unfortunately the Ministry announced the first death in Qatar due to covid-19, a 57-year old man with pre-existing medical issues. He had been in hospital for 12 days before finally succumbing.

Yesterday the number of new cases was 13, and today it was 28, which was a bit unnerving. 28 is the most new cases in a day for almost two weeks. Hopefully this won't be the start of a ramp-up of cases and we'll be seeing dozens every day. The Ministry said that while some of them were Qataris who had recently arrived from abroad some of the cases were "from contacts" which I assume means community transfer. We'll see if this starts to increase. Stay Home People! Qatar continues to arrest people who violate self-quarantine as well, which is a good thing.

Another thing people might not realize about covid-19 is that you can make you sick for a very long time. To date Qatar has reported that 45 people have recovered from the disease, yet on March 11th they found 238 new cases of the virus for a total of 262 cases. That means that most of them have not recovered yet -- 17 days later. That's been one of the most troubling parts so far, while the number of new cases has been going up by anywhere from 7 to 28, the number of people recovering each day only goes up by 2 to 4, which means those new cases add more strain on the health system (if they need hospitalization, hopefully most don't). This is why health systems in Europe are getting overwhelmed, every day there's hundreds or thousands of new cases but people spend so long in the hospital the hospitals becomes stretched to the limit in a few days because no one is discharged. I am hoping that over the next few days we will see a big increase in the number of people recovering from the illness as that group of 262 cases starts to recover.

If friends and family tell you that covid-19 is "not a big deal" let them know that the virus has a wide range of outcomes, it's not just either "you're fine" or "you're dead", they could spend weeks in the hospital with a respirator.

Stay home everyone if you can, and wash your hands.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Holding Steady but Preparing for the Worst

Today the Ministry announced another 12 cases, bringing the total to 549.

The curve for Qatar is still pretty flat: I couldn't find all of the past data but here is the number of cases since the 12th:

March 12th 238, then 58, 17, 64, <40, <25, <10, <10, <10, 11, 13, 7, 25, 11, 12 (March 26) so for the last week it is typically around 10-12 new cases a day. But the Government is not resting on its laurels, they are taking this very seriously and preparing for the worst. Yesterday ten more Qataris were arrested for violating self-quarantine, and the Government has banned all social gatherings, including hosting people at a majlis. Friends have told me that police are roaming Qatari neighborhoods looking for cars parked in front of majlises. One of my friends told me that in his neighbourhood someone was 'busted' for hosting people at his majlis and was given a QAR 5000 fine (US$ 1,370). Stay home people! Despite the low number of new cases preparations are underway for new hospital capacity. Aside from the hospital dedicated to coronavirus that the government announced over a week ago, a field hospital was built in Al Khor, and a private hospital has been taken over by the Government to enhance the number of beds and equipment if needed. The most surprising announcement was the Government converting an entire compound into a hospital. It'll be ready shortly and will have capacity for 18,000 beds! 18,000 beds is some serious expansion. (And based on the photo in the article the Minister and the people with him should be standing further apart, just saying.)

That is serious preparation though. I searched the internet for the median age in Qatar and kept seeing numbers in the 32 & 33 range. That's fairly young, EU countries tend to have a median age of 40 or more. Also because most of the population are temporary expats there would be a 'bulge' of people around the 20-40 age range, it would be a lot greater than in Western countries, so there would not be a lot of elderly people by comparison. In fact the Government enacted rules a few years ago that Government offices cannot have expat workers over the age of 60 without getting special permission. So the population of Qatar is fairly young.

If we assume that 50% of infected people don't show symptoms, and about 20% of infected require hospitalization (I actually assume the percentage for Qatar would be even less given the relatively young age of the population but we'll go with 20%) then to fill 18,000 beds would require there to be 90,000 cases. That's more than Italy has right now and it has 60 million people, Qatar only has 2.7 million. For comparison that would be the equivalent of the United States having 11 MILLION cases of Covid-19, or the UK having 2.2 million cases. And the 18,000 beds Qatar is preparing does not include the three other hospitals being used or prepared for Coronavirus patients.

Already having one dedicated hospital for coronavirus has helped other hospitals immensely. A Qatari friend of mine had to take his father to the hospital recently for a non-flu issue and he told me the hospital had almost no patients waiting! Since non-elective surgeries have been cancelled, and most doctor consultations are now done over the phone to minimize people with appointments going to the hospital, there were no crowds in the hospitals at all. He also told me the hospital was extremely clean and he saw workers even washing the walls with alcohol.

And where are the cleaning products coming from? Qatar has a factory for that so it doesn't need to rely on imports. I'm not sure if the factory could produce enough for everyone at the same time but you can be sure if the caseload rises the Government will prioritize hospitals for the cleaning products.

Hopefully that hospital compound will never need to be used, but Qatar is preparing for things to get "Italy-level" bad. It won't if everyone just stays home and stops being reckless.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Slight Rise in Cases Each Day

Over the last three days the number of Coronavirus cases in Qatar has been growing slowly -- 11 one day, then 13, and today 7. The total number of cases is 501, and 37 have recovered. No deaths.

The Ministry of Health has been saying that the new cases relate to Qataris and expats who had returned to Qatar over the last while and who were in self-isolation or quarantine. That means Qatar has had three waves:

1 - initial wave of people who had visited Iran

2 - a cluster where some people at a compound tested positive so the Government cordoned off the area and tested everybody. From that they discovered around 300+ cases. I assume that compound is in the Industrial Area because the whole neighborhood was put under lockdown with restricted access both in and out. There was some criticism from a human rights group that it turned the neighbourhood essentially into a prison but that criticism was before other countries started heavy lockdowns and curfews. I bet Italy wishes it had done heavier lockdowns sooner. And what Qatar did seemed to have worked because the current cases are:

3 - Qataris and some expats who had returned to the country recently from abroad and were self-isolating.


If you look at the pattern of cases in other countries it tended to grow exponentially, by that basis Qatar should have thousands of cases now yet they don't. It appears the quick action by the Government to clamp down is working. Here's hoping it continues to work.

And if you are made to self-isolate the Government means it, you have to sign a paper promising you will not break quarantine. Yes, even Qataris. Do they listen? No, of course not, many broke their self-isolation. They weren't counting on being arrested though -- the Government is not fooling around with this. Every day in the paper now the Government reports how many were arrested for violating the Government's order and their names are published in the papers. Yep, Qatar 'names & shames' the offenders. To date 33 Qataris have been arrested. Hopefully everyone will start getting the message.

Nearly everything is closed: non-essential shops, parks, mosques, the Corniche, museums, public transit and so on. Mandatory work-from-home orders, bans on non-Qataris entering the country, the only thing missing is a curfew. Given the low number of daily cases they might not need to do that.


I've been tempted to wander around outside and take photos of empty places where people once gathered, like Souq Waqif, but nope I'm not going to do it. I'm staying home.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates -- Cases Slowly Growing, Most People Staying Home

Cases in the country are now at 460. It's a slow increase, for the last three days the number of cases has only gone up from 3 - 10 a day, which a good thing given previously it was going up 40+ a day and one day over 200. Over 9000 people have been tested.

Non-essential retail shops are closed and offices have to use work-from-home procedures where possible (at least 80% of staff should be working from home). I am now working from home and that is fine with me -- I can't catch the virus if I just stay inside my apartment. Hopefully I don't have it but I think it is unlikely. I have been pretty careful the past two+ weeks about social distancing, avoided using the metro, washed my hands a lot and had hand sanitizer on me at almost all times.

I have enough food for at least three weeks so it looks like I'm going to be in my apartment for a while. I planned ahead, made sure the food I got was mostly healthy stuff: oatmeal, legumes, dried & fresh fruit, canned vegetables, canned tuna, soups, nuts, UHT milk. I also bought some various vitamins to top-up in case my meals for the day were missing out on something, especially vitamin C for when the fresh fruit & greens runs out. I have to say I am eating healthier than I have for a while, absolutely zero fast food, no fried foods, no excess salt, desserts are dates or dried fruit, sometimes a protein bar with chocolate on it. I am trying to eat only 1600-1800 calories a day, might as well try to lose some weight while I am here.

I live in a neighborhood that is nothing but apartment buildings close together so sunlight is hard to come by. For about 90 minutes each day the sun shines directly through my windows, when it does I have a seat in the sunbeam to get some sunlight on my body and get some vitamin D. I think psychologically having a bit of time in the Sun is good for you as well.

For entertainment the Internet is working just fine and I have plenty of books to read. I have been following aerobics videos on YouTube for exercise, every now and then I'll do 10-15 minutes to keep myself moving. Seems okay so far. I'm not one to get lonely easily and it's simple enough to text or chat with friends using my phone to keep in touch with people.

I think I'll be fine for the next while just staying in my apartment. Some people are still going out in the evenings and visiting friends at majlises and stuff which I think is a bit risky. I'm not going to take the chance. I'm doing my part to prevent the spread of the virus.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - Now Over 400 Cases

The Ministry of Public Health as reported an additional 64 cases today, bringing the total to 401. Sadly it will likely continue to increase.

The only question is when will it peak? If you look at other countries that had the virus spread rapidly earlier (South Korea, Italy, now Spain and Germany) when they reached this point it was the beginning of the sharp rise in cases, within a week it was thousands of cases. One week ago in Qatar it was only 15 cases.

Further restrictions have just been announced. Cancelling all public transport, mandating that people over 55 and people with health issues can work from home, mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone coming into the country (if they allowed in at all, it might be that just Qatari citizens will be allowed in now).

Qatar might peak at a smaller number, the country is small, mostly one city, and people were starting to be careful over a week ago, even before significant cancelling of events etc started. Was it enough and in time? One can hope.

Qatar Coronavirus Updates - now over 300 cases

Looks like I spoke too soon about no new cases. Within an hour of the last post the Ministry of Public Health announced 58 more cases, taking the total to 320. This morning they announced another 17, so the current total is 337.

That might not seem like a lot compared to other nations but don't forget Qatar is a small country of 2.7m people. 337 cases would be the equivalent of 4,400 cases in Canada (they currently have ~200) or 40,700 in America (they currently have ~2,000). On a per capita basis Qatar now has about as many cases as South Korea, which is not good.

The Government reports that almost all of the new cases relate to the compound where 200+ cases were discovered weeks ago. I assume they have been quarantining people who were in contact with them and the positive tests are now appearing. If so then the workers would likely all be under 50 years of age so there is only a small chance of anyone dying from the virus. So far Qatar has reported no deaths. If it spreads to the Qatari community though it will most certainly kill a lot of elderly people.

For the most part people seem to be obeying recommendations for avoiding crowds and washing/sanitizing hands. I see a lot more people wearing masks or covering their mouths with things like scarves.

I was talking to a Qatari today who confirmed to me why Qatar has plenty of supplies in the shops. After the blockade the Government set minimum standards for shops to have back-up supplies of crucial items, and the Government even built storage facilities for grocery stores to store the inventory. In addition the blockade forced Qatar to ramp-up self-sufficiency so the country is now able to internally produce enough dairy products, eggs, drinking water and cleaning products/sanitizer to keep things going without significant disruption. It was a costly process to do this after the blockade happened but it's paying off now. Qatar might be in better standing than some Western nations right now in terms of having staple foods in the shops.

Let's hope Qatar got a handle on that outbreak in a compound, otherwise we'll see the number of cases continue to ramp up and stricter control measures taken.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Further Closings

No new cases announced thankfully (still at 262) but the government has now closed places like gyms, playgrounds, and wedding halls. The metro is closed for the weekend. Events have been pretty much cancelled across the board. The government is emphasizing good hygiene and maintaining "social distance". The government also recommends no one travel and elderly people should try to stay home as much as possible and at a minimum avoid crowded places. A clinic has now been dedicated for only Covid-19 patients so I'm guessing the government is expecting more cases soon.

Unlike some parts of the West the grocery stores seem to be doing fine. There was a surge in shopping during the week but people can still find supplies. I think credit can go in part to the blockade, which made the Qatari Government aware of the importance of stockpiling food and supplies. As for hand sanitizer a factory is up and running in Qatar now that is producing sanitizer and other cleaning products and getting it out to the shops. I had never heard of this factory before so how did it get up and running so quickly? Again, I think post-blockade emergency preparation had a lot to do with it.

I spent today at home. I have plenty of food so I can stay here for two weeks no problem if it is needed. Not that the country is on lockdown or anything but it makes sense to curtail outside interactions for a while. A lot of people, especially Qataris, have health and obesity issues so if the virus spreads rapidly it will become a huge issue. Hopefully everyone stays calm and is mindful of not spreading the virus by staying at home for the most part and if going out washing their hands and using sanitizer frequently.

Sadly I had to cancel an upcoming trip to Canada but it is certainly not worth the risk travelling right now. These are crazy times.

Qatar Coronavirus Update -- Huge Jump in Cases!

Last post Qatar had 15 cases.

Then it became 18.

Then it became 24. Qatar has now closed schools and universities. Travelers from a list of 15 countries are no longer allowed to enter. Shisha cafes have been shut and most events in the country have been cancelled.

Now the Government just announced an additional 238 cases were diagnosed. Yes, two-hundred thirty-eight, bringing the total to 262. This would mean on a per capita basis Qatar (9.7 cases per 100,000 people) is just behind Italy and Iran (~14 cases per 100,000).

The new cases appear to be due to the three "free-ranging" cases discovered a few days ago, where authorities then quarantined their apartment building/compound and started testing everyone. Looks like a lot of people caught it.

Hopefully the Government managed to contain things. Even then I expect stricter measures to be imposed by the Government, and if more clusters are found outside this compound the country might need to lock-down like Italy has done.

I'm stocked up with food etc so can stay home for an extended period if need be, ever since the virus was announced in China I had been buying extra groceries every time I went to the store so slowly built-up food in case a lock-down happened. I do it is not necessary though.

Qatar Coronavirus Update - and What to do if you Can't Find Hand Sanitizer

Until recently the number of cases in Qatar was 12 but they were all from the extradition flight from Iran so had safely been quarantined without interacting with any of the public here. Unfortunately there was an announcement this afternoon by the Ministry of Public Health that three more cases have been discovered -- but they weren't part of that Iran flight. It means that Qatar now has its first independent cases.

According to the Ministry the apartment building where the three were staying at has been quarantined and authorities are testing anyone who may have been in close contact with them. Hopefully the three weren't wandering around Qatar for too long.

It is possible they were under quarantine already, many expats who arrived from high risk countries were quarantined in designated apartment buildings (yesterday a friend of mine was telling me about one Italian colleague who was sequestered in such a building). We'll see in the next few days if more free-roaming cases appear.

Qatar is already preparing for problems and coronavirus is on people's minds. Some of my colleagues have been avoiding crowded areas like malls, and my office building has installed hand sanitizer stations in the elevators. Public bathrooms have signs instructing people how to properly wash their hands and how to minimize the risk of acquiring the virus. I'm seeing people wearing masks now, maybe 10-15% of people wandering around are wearing them. Schools are still open (Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE closed them) but I suspect if more cases appear then Qatar will close the schools as well.

There's been no panic-buying yet, plenty of toilet paper in the shops (why toilet paper has been a craze in the West I don't know), but hand sanitizer is definitely hard to come by. I picked some up last weekend but there wasn't much left. But there are other ways to sanitize. Surprisingly while the hand sanitizers were running low there were plenty of bottles of 70% ethyl alcohol as well as 70% isopropyl alcohol bottles right by where you would buy sanitizer. I don't know if people realize those alcohols are the main ingredient of most hand sanitizers and work just as well. There are online recipes for making at-home hand sanitizer with either of those alcohols but just using them as they are will work fine. I did some searching and as long as the strength is at least 60% it will kill the virus. The alcohols are a liquid so maybe get something like an eye-dropper so you don't use too much.


Hopefully in Qatar things don't get as extreme as in the nearby countries. Saudi has quarantined one city today, and closed the bridge and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to non-commercial traffic. Kuwait is not letting most (all?) non-citizens into the country, basically trying to seal the country off, and Bahrain now has 85 cases, which is more per capita than China. As long as everyone stays calm, takes precautions, and keeps washing their hands things shouldn't get too severe.

Qatar and the Coronavirus

Okay, it has been an exciting last couple of weeks to say the least. Slowly but surely the Coronavirus has been making its way around the world and now there are cases all over the Middle East, mostly thanks to the outbreak in Iran.

People here are definitely concerned but not panicking. Coronavirus is the main topic of conversation wherever you go. Many people have canceled trips abroad, including my friends who canceled a weekend trip to Istanbul due to worries over Coronavirus -- and then though no cases have been reported yet in Turkey. There hasn't been panic-buying yet and the shops are still well-stocked with food and essentials.

Currently Qatar has seven cases (it was three but it changed as I was typing this) but it is not a concern; a few days ago the Qatar Government sent a special flight to Iran to pick up citizens stranded there and took them straight to quarantine. All seven cases are from that flight. So far there are no cases in Qatar from people independent of that flight.

It's not to say that Qatar is not testing for it, if someone goes to the hospital or clinic with symptoms they get checked for the virus. Luckily no other cases so far. The blockade is actually proving to be a help here, the only ways into the country are through the airport or by ship, and measures are in place at both places. Even goods offloaded from ships are left in storage for at least two days before being moved in. The Ministry of Health appears to be taking Coronavirus seriously and has been making preparations for an outbreak.

The rest of the Gulf is not so fortunate. Kuwait has over 50 cases, Bahrain nearly as many, UAE has over 20 and Saudi is recording its first cases now. Most of these were from people flying in from Iran or people in close contact with them, though in the UAE some cases were from China and Italy. Lots of travel restrictions are now in place, Saudi is cancelling most types of visit visas, Kuwait is not allowing many travellers in and advised its citizens not to travel. Bahrain has only one million people so 50 cases is a lot per capita (it would be the equivalent of United States having 15,000 cases) so they need to be extra-careful lest it turn into a major problem.

It's clear that some countries are either underreporting or do not have the ability to detect most of the cases. There is no way Iran has so few cases. Back when they were claiming they had 95 cases around 60 people flying to the Gulf from Iran were found to have the virus. Unless a symptom of the Coronavirus is a burning desire to buy plane tickets to the Gulf there is no chance that many people would have it if only 95 cases had been in the country. I read an article a few days ago where some Canadian researchers estimated Iran probably had 18,000 or so cases. Now it is probably more. I spoke with some Iranian friends who live in Qatar and they said people in Iran are really concerned and no believes the Government numbers. That Turkey is reporting none is also odd given it shares a border with Iran. Yes it closed the border a while ago but given it can take many days for symptoms to show there has to be some who crossed into Turkey (or flew there) beforehand. Egypt is also a big question mark, so few cases reported yet in other countries they are detecting cases in Egyptians. Many Gulf countries have banned travellers from Egypt or who have recently been in Egypt, I think they suspect it is a bigger problem in Egypt than the Government is letting on.


Anyway, I'm fine. Things in Qatar are still normal, no lock-downs or school closures. I have stocked up on essentials but hope things don't get worse here.

Locusts

This week social media in Arabia was flooded with videos of locust swarms invading the deserts. The swarms are possibly from Pakistan, which is having serious issues with locusts right now, or maybe the weather conditions in the entire region are helping locusts swarm, I'm not sure. Unfortunately I didn't see a swarm myself, that would have been cool to witness.

In the local news was this great article: Ministry combats locust swarm, warns against eating the insects. Now most Westerners are probably thinking, "Don't eat them?! Did that really need to be said?". Well the answer is yes, it needed to be said. Many people in Arabia eat locusts and the Qatari Government is concerned if people eat them they may be poisoned by the insecticides the Government is spraying to control the swarms.

Islam has a number of dietary restrictions and Muslims have to avoid foods that are 'haram' (forbidden). The most well known of these haram foods is pork, but there are other restrictions as well. It has some similarities (but is not exact) to Jewish dietary laws. Muslims look for food that is 'halal', acceptable for Muslims to eat.

While not specifically mentioned in the Qur'an, eating locusts is mentioned in a number of hadiths as 'halal'. A quick Google search found about a dozen such references in hadiths, including one in the Al-Bukhari hadiths:

Narrated by Ibn Abi `Aufa:
We participated with the Prophet (peace be upon him) in six or seven Ghazawat, and we used to eat locusts with him.

Locusts are, I believe, the only insect specifically listed as halal. Because of this many people in the Arabian peninsula will eat them. It is not commonly done in Qatar, I don't see grilled locusts being sold at marketplaces here, but clearly when abundant some people eat them, hence the Government's warning. A Qatari friend mentioned to me that when he was young and at an Army Cadet camp they had to eat locusts as part of desert survival skills training. It's not something he enjoyed eating though.

Despite the hadiths it is not common here for locusts to be eaten in Qatar. It is more common in the southern part of the peninsula, particularly in Yemen. A Yemeni friend confirmed locusts were eaten frequently there, to the point where people may even protest using insecticides so that they can eat locusts safely (I guess they want locusts to be organic).





I haven't tried one myself. I am usually pretty open-minded about trying new foods but eating a locust, even a cooked one, grosses me out. I'll pass and let the swarms live in peace.