‘Ensuring health and safety’ of citizens, residents top priority

TDT | Manama

Health Minister Faeqa Al Saleh yesterday said that the government’s top priority is to ensure the health and safety of citizens and residents. This came as the minister received a World Health Organisation (WHO) delegation, which reviewed the precautions taken by the Kingdom against Coronavirus. At the beginning of the meeting, the minister welcomed the delegation, praising the level of continuous co-operation between the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation on the implementation of preventive measures.

The minister stressed that specialised medical and health teams are working hand-in-hand under the directives of HRH the Crown Prince. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has commended Bahrain’s precautionary measures to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and protect public health.

Supreme Council for Health (SCH) President, Head of the National Task Force for Combating COVID-19 Lieutenant General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa hailed the WHO appreciation, paying tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for his royal directives to heed citizens and residents’ health. He lauded the follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, hailing the dedicated efforts exerted by the National Task Force, which contributed to containing the virus.

He reiterated task force’s keenness on pursuing strenuous efforts to promote the national interest and the safety of citizens and residents by implementing all world-standard precautionary measures to combat COVID-19. He welcomed the report which was issued by WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, commending Bahrain’s strenuous efforts and precautionary measures combat the coronavirus citing particularly the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to contain and prevent the spread of the virus, led by HRH the Crown Prince.

Ms Al Saleh also commended WHO keenness on following up COVID-19 developments in all countries of the region and the world, adding that the report issued by the regional officer for East Mediterranean acknowledges the continuous efforts made by all members of the national task force to ensure the health and safety of all citizens and residents. She paid tribute to HM the King’s royal directives and HRH the Crown Prince’s keen follow-up.  The report cited the measures which were undertaken by the Kingdom of Bahrain, setting up a national task force to develop a strategy aimed at containing any COVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier, the WHO said that the mortality rate among Coronavirus patients stand at 3.4 per cent. In a related development, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that the mortality rate, known as Case Fatality Rate (CFR), is calculated by dividing the number of reported deaths over the number of reported confirmed cases. “As this is an evolving outbreak this will change over time, and vary from place to place. On the one hand, early in the outbreak it may be higher where surveillance focuses on identifying severe cases, however, it may also be lower because people with severe cases may not die for several weeks.

Jašarević said that the death rate also varies between locations and that “we have seen higher CFR in Wuhan compared to other parts of China, and in the China mission report have published detailed CFR by location and at different time points. “CFR in China has reduced massively since the beginning of the outbreak but there are varied CFRs in different countries and outbreaks. The 3.4 percent is the current global ‘snapshot’ CFR.”