Follow health guidelines!d

TDT | Manama

The National Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) reiterated yesterday that following health recommendations issued to curb the spread of the disease are essential to defeating it, and that non-compliance is resulting in the increase of active cases in the Kingdom.

This was stressed at a press conference held at the Crown Prince Centre for Training and Medical Research at Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital, to highlight developments in the fight against COVID-19.

Speaking at the conference were Ministry of Health undersecretary Dr Waleed Al Manea, Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, Infectious Disease Consultant and Microbiologist at BDF Hospital and National Taskforce member Lt. Col. Dr Manaf Al Qahtani, and Infectious and Internal Diseases consultant at Salmaniya Medical Complex Dr Jameela Al Salman.

Dr Al Manea said that strictly following health guidelines is a personal and social responsibility that is of utmost importance to overcome the challenges of the coronavirus. He said that as the situation changes, so too is the response and succeeding in the fight against the pandemic requires the cooperation of everyone.

Dr Al Manea noted that non-compliance to the measures can lead to the transmission of the virus from one case to family members, friends, co-workers, and others, as seen earlier this week when 31 family members in a single-family had been identified as active cases.

Dr Al Manea noted that, following the directives of HRH the Crown Prince, the capacity at isolation and treatment centres has been expanded to 4,257 beds and 5,489 beds at quarantine centres, of which 3,330 and 515 beds were being occupied, respectively, at the time of the conference.

Meanwhile, Al Qaed underlined the contributions made by the iGA to the Kingdom’s comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation efforts, including the utilisation of technologies to support remote work and education, as well as the launch of the “BeAware” application.

The iGA chief noted that the application uses location data to alert individuals in the event they approach an active case or a location an active case has visited. It also tracks the movement of quarantine cases for a duration of 14 days, as well as publishes health recommendations and highlights global COVID-19 developments.

He noted that the “BeAware” app is currently monitoring 2,273 self-isolation cases via e-bracelets and has monitored 5,123 cases so far, as well as distributing 4,194 e-bracelets. Al Qaed went on to explain that the iGA has added a new feature to the application, allowing citizens and residents to schedule their end-of-isolation swab.

Of the total 8,404 swabs, 3,519 have been scheduled via the application, while 4,885 have been scheduled over the phone. As of yesterday, the app has identified 1,879 contacts of active cases, alerted 1,807 individuals of their close proximity to an active case, scheduled COVID-19 tests for 1,584 individuals, and identified 227 active cases – 36 of whom are Bahrainis while the rest are expatriate workers.

A total of 545,000 downloads and 343,072 registrations have been recorded to date, a clear indication of the public’s awareness of its important role in the preservation of public health.

Al Qaed highlighted that “BeAware” is in line with the directives issued by His Majesty the King to develop a comprehensive national plan to ensure that Bahrain embraces the digital economy, by adopting and employing artificial intelligence technologies.

Al Qaed assured the public that the data of citizens are secure and that they cannot be accessed by just anyone. For his part, Dr Al Qahtani explained the correct ways of transporting active or suspected cases, as issued by the Ministry of Health this week.

He added that the clinical trials of convalescent plasma transfusions on COVID-19 patients continue to show positive results in its third week. He said that the national medical team is in the process of finalising indicators, and data on the plasma treatment will be revealed in a week or two.

On her part, Dr Al Salman said that, according to studies around the world, the percentage of men being infected by COVID-19 is 60 to 75 per cent greater than women.

She said this could be because, as studies have shown, men have higher concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in their blood and ACE2 enables the coronavirus to infect healthy cells. She added that another reason for this could also be due to the nature of the work of men, which leaves them more exposed.