* 3,488 people have left hotel quarantine
* 28 hotels used for quarantine purposes
* 3,775 reports related to quarantine violations from March 31 until April 4
* 378 violations detected since March in campaigns by ministries
* 2017 experience helping Qatar in field of food security

Praise for media

HE Lolwah bint Rashid bin Mohamed Alkhater has praised the awareness efforts of a number of media institutions, including Qatar Media Corporation, as it has published about 645 awareness videos in different languages and is broadcasting daily TV programmes related to the coronavirus crisis.

A total of 6,694 people have been subjected to hotel quarantine until now, with 3,488 individuals leaving such quarantine, HE the Spokesperson for the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management Lolwah bint Rashid bin Mohamed Alkhater has said.

She added that 28 hotels had been allocated for this purpose, the official Qatar News Agency reported.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, HE AlKhater said there were 3,775 reports related to quarantine violations from March 31 until April 4, while several calls were also received on 999 with regard to violations of the ban on gatherings. All the reports and calls were dealt with, she added.

HE AlKhater stressed that the efforts of ministries and other institutions are continuing in full swing, including campaigns carried out by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Municipality and Environment that have resulted in the detection of some 378 violations from March until now. Other initiatives include fixing the prices for selling sterilisers, disinfectants and other goods, in addition to conducting inspection campaigns at factories to ensure their compliance with the relevant conditions and establishing a hotline to receive complaints.

With regard to nationals abroad, including Qatari citizens, children, wives and husbands of Qataris, HE AlKhater called on them to contact the embassies in the countries where they are located at the numbers announced on the dedicated website.

She stressed the need to communicate and reassure embassies in the countries in which they stay, and that in the event they need any service or facilitation to return to Qatar, this is available to all of them.

She also spoke about food security in Qatar and said that the experience of Qatar in 2017 has benefitted the country a lot.

She pointed out that Qatar is ranked first in the Arab world concerning food security and 13th in the world, stressing that supplies and strategic food stocks exist and there is a relentless endeavour to enhance this strategic stock, whether by importing goods or through achieving self-sufficiency in some sectors.

With regard to the efforts of all those living in Qatar, including expatriates, she said a campaign was launched by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs on April 5 to educate employers as well as expatriate workers on various procedures in different languages.

HE AlKhater drew attention to some of the steps taken in this framework, including continuous communication with labour representatives of different communities and different embassies in Qatar, as well as the adoption of a policy to protect workers and reduce the spread of the coronavirus. These are in addition to preparing a basic information document for employers, production of awareness films in different languages, constant co-operation with the Ministry of Public Health through continuous checks and the allocation of facilities as well as their expansion and capacity enhancement to receive patients.

HE AlKhater pointed out that the government contact centre, which includes three different government sites and a fourth site will be added, currently comprises about 300 employees working in the different centres to receive call. They provide 70 active electronic services in nine different languages round the clock with a link to 34 government entities, noting that the number of calls exceeded 340,000 with an average response speed of about 11 seconds, and an average satisfaction with the service of about 90%.

She also reviewed figures related to e-governmen and the percentage of e-connectivity, as it increased to 83% between government agencies. In the past period, more than 1,600 cyberattacks were addressed in the field of cybersecurity. Also, about 34 terabytes of data were received on government portals and various electronic entities, and the communication rate between different entities increased by 20% as well.





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