Qatar has done well by maintaining one of the lowest Covid-19 death rates in the world, besides registering a fall in the number of hospital admissions and a decrease in the number of daily cases in the last few weeks.
At the peak of the coronavirus, Qatar had seen more than 2,000 new confirmed cases a day, but for the past few weeks the number has constantly remained under 500. 
Therefore, the country is midway through Phase 3 of the lifting of nation-wide restrictions.
Already Qatar announced a comprehensive master plan to ease restrictions through four stages (from June 15 to the fourth and final stage on September 1).
Obviously, this does not mean we let our guard down. 
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says “though restrictions are being lifted and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the Covid-19 pandemic has ended in Qatar. People continue to be admitted with moderate to severe Covid-19 symptoms.”
The health ministry has emphasised, “Unless we follow all precautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus (attack) and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this happening in other countries.”
“A second wave of Covid-19 is a very real threat – as several other countries around the world are now experiencing,” Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, chair of the National Strategic Group on Covid-19, said during a press conference convened by the Ministry of Public Health recently.
Despite the total number of new cases declining considerably in recent weeks and months, there has been a worrying trend of increasing cases within the Qatari community and expat professional population groups, Dr al-Khal observed.
“This is due to a minority of people within these population groups who continue to ignore preventive advice – putting themselves and those around them at risk,” he said.
The pandemic has presented a unique set of challenges for all of us. We are still learning more and more about coronavirus every single day, but public health experts continue to warn that you don’t actually have to be exhibiting symptoms to spread the new coronavirus.
A person infected with the virus can be contagious as early as three days before he or she begins showing symptoms. In addition, some people never develop symptoms, but are still able to spread the virus.
The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a new level of personal accountability on each one of us. To slow the spread of coronavirus and protect the health and vitality of our people, we must remain committed to the extra precautions our public health officials are recommending.
At the core of these preventive measures is the need for continued social distancing and take all of the precautions seriously— even if one is healthy.
The Covid-19 cases have surpassed 21mn with more than 762,000 deaths worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) continues to urge both governments and people everywhere to work to suppress the new coronavirus.
No matter where a country, a region, a city or a town is – it’s never too late to turn the outbreak around!