The number of Covid-19 infections among school students is very few given the number of students who go to school, top health official Dr Abdullatif al-Khal told Qatar TV on Wednesday.
"So far no child has died of Covid-19 in Qatar and only four admitted to the ICU," explained Hamad Medical Corporation’s deputy chief medical officer and chairman of the National Pandemic Preparedness Committee.
"The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) continues with random testing for Covid-19 cases in schools. The number of such cases is less than 1% in total.
"Most of the infections came from outside schools and the situation is very assuring," Dr al-Khal said while asserting that schools are closed completely in case of more than three classrooms with infections or more than 5% of the teaching staff getting infected.
The MoPH follows various mechanisms to protect students at schools including testing, monitoring and implementation of the precautionary and preventive measures.
Dr al-Khal pointed out that a recent increase in Covid-19 cases among Qataris and expatriates in the country is due to a laxity in following the precautionary and preventive measures.
"However, the situation in Qatar is considered stable with a range of around 200 to 300 cases reported daily," he said.
Referring to the global scenario, Dr al-Khal said the pandemic is still spreading and a second and third wave have started in some countries.
"It's hard to predict a second wave of Covid-19 in Qatar currently. May be the epidemiologists could tell within the next four to eight weeks but is unlikely. But they say that the infection spots remain within the society," he pointed out.
According to Dr al-Khal the current percentage of positive cases in Qatar is only 3 to 3.5% and it is a very assuring percentage and the MoPH is following the related indicators closely.
"Qatar is expecting to a get large quantity of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech by the end of this year or early next year if its approval is delayed.
"So we have to wait a few months until we get the vaccine and everybody have to be patient and abide by the preventive and precautionary measures, especially the vulnerable categories," he added.
"The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) continues with random testing for Covid-19 cases in schools. The number of such cases is less than 1% in total.
"Most of the infections came from outside schools and the situation is very assuring," Dr al-Khal said while asserting that schools are closed completely in case of more than three classrooms with infections or more than 5% of the teaching staff getting infected.
The MoPH follows various mechanisms to protect students at schools including testing, monitoring and implementation of the precautionary and preventive measures.
Dr al-Khal pointed out that a recent increase in Covid-19 cases among Qataris and expatriates in the country is due to a laxity in following the precautionary and preventive measures.
"However, the situation in Qatar is considered stable with a range of around 200 to 300 cases reported daily," he said.
Referring to the global scenario, Dr al-Khal said the pandemic is still spreading and a second and third wave have started in some countries.
"It's hard to predict a second wave of Covid-19 in Qatar currently. May be the epidemiologists could tell within the next four to eight weeks but is unlikely. But they say that the infection spots remain within the society," he pointed out.
According to Dr al-Khal the current percentage of positive cases in Qatar is only 3 to 3.5% and it is a very assuring percentage and the MoPH is following the related indicators closely.
"Qatar is expecting to a get large quantity of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech by the end of this year or early next year if its approval is delayed.
"So we have to wait a few months until we get the vaccine and everybody have to be patient and abide by the preventive and precautionary measures, especially the vulnerable categories," he added.
