New cases in Bahrain remain stable as COVID-19 curve flattens

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The COVID-19 curve seems to have begun to flatten with new infections remaining stable during the past week.

Medical experts say this flattening of the curve reflects Bahrain’s success saga in terms of administering vaccine and booster doses along with strict measures taken to tackle the spread of the virus.

According to Health Ministry, the recent daily new cases reported in Bahrain were 8,063 (Feb 4), 7,273 (Feb 5), 7,434 (Feb 6), 7,709 (Feb 7), 7,042 (Feb 8) and 7,121 (Feb 9).

However, the virus continues to claim lives in Bahrain with two more deaths reported by the Health Ministry on Tuesday night.

The death number has risen to 1,416 and there are now 19 critical cases.

On the vaccination front, the authorities have reaped great success; 12,27,083 have received two doses of the vaccine while 11,97,203 received one dose; 949,371 have already received their booster doses.

Bahrain has registered over 100,000 Omicron cases since January 2022, according to Lt Col Dr Manaf Al Qahtani, Infectious Diseases Consultant and Microbiologist at the BDF Hospital and Member of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating COVID-19.

The first Omicron case was reported on December 11 last year and the infected had travelled abroad.

Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani pointed out that 787 people passed away out of 112,000 positive cases, due to the advent of the Delta variant last year.

He stressed the success of the national vaccination campaign in achieving its goals, which contributed to raising the immune response for all age groups which took two doses and the booster jab.

“The anti-coronavirus vaccination has proven effective in reducing the incidence of complications for existing cases, thus reducing hospital admission rates and intensive care and the death toll,” he said.

He underlined Bahrain’s continuous efforts to combat the virus within the national vaccination campaign to protect citizens and residents’ health and safety.

“It is important to focus in the current stage on the number of existing cases whose health requires hospitalisation or admission to intensive care,” said Dr Al Qahtani.

Following approval by the Vaccination Committee, a second booster shot has been made available by choice for adults aged 60 years and above, and frontline medical professionals.

According to the National Medical Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus, eligible individuals may receive any vaccine as a second booster shot, three months after receiving the first booster shot.

The Taskforce also noted that the green shield will not change to yellow on the ‘BeAware’ application for this age group if they do not receive a booster shot.

It highlighted that the National Vaccination Campaign will continue its endeavours to safeguard public health, and called on all individuals who are qualified for the second booster to head directly to the specific health centres that were previously announced by the Ministry of Health without the need of booking an appointment.

In a recent development, Paxlovid anti-viral COVID-19 drug has been approved for emergency use in Bahrain.

The move will offer better support to patients at high risk of suffering serious complications, according to medical experts.