Qatar will start implementing major relaxation of its COVID-19 travel restrictions from today in the wake of a significant decrease in the number of cases in the country and the success of its extensive vaccination campaign.
This coincides with two years since the first COVID-19 case was reported in the country, on February 29, 2020.
The first case was detected in a 36-year-old Qatari citizen returning from Iran. The fight against COVID-19 is still on but Qatar has not just battled the virus but also its variants successfully.
With the efforts of the health sector and cooperation of all state agencies, Qatar was able to respond to the pandemic and overcame three waves of COVID-19. The measures adopted by the country succeeded in limiting its spread in the country, mitigating its effects on various aspects of life, and reducing the death rate due to complications of the disease to a minimum, being one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world.
According to reports, Qatar has weathered the pandemic efficiently and has been the best performer among Arab countries. Qatar was ranked 15th in the list of countries that dealt with the pandemic efficiently and was the only Arab country in this classification by Der Spiegel magazine.
Qatar has acted proactively throughout the pandemic and maintained a set of strict policies. The quarantine policy for anyone entering Qatar has been one of the strictest of its kind in the world and has proven effective in delaying the new variants into the country at a time when many countries around the world were being affected by those new strains.
Qatar is among the first to introduce technological shield (Ehteraz app) to help contain the coronavirus. Since its launch, the Ehteraz app has proved its efficacy in tracing people who might have contracted the virus. The government made the app mandatory for all, and it was and still is a great help in slowing the spread of the virus.
More than 352,000 people in Qatar have recovered from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in 2020. At present, there are 3,450 active cases.
During the first wave of infections in 2020, the highest number of cases recorded was 2,355 on May 30, 2020. Qatar witnessed the second wave in March-April 2021, which was driven by the spread of the UK and South Africa strains. On April 13, 2021, a total of 981 cases were reported as peak of the second wave.
The Delta variant first appeared in the world in February 2021, but it was detected in Qatar four months later in August 2021.
Qatar witnessed the start of third wave of COVID-19 with a spike in cases fuelled by the Omicron variant in January 2022. As many as 4,206 cases were recorded on January 12 as the third wave hit its peak.
Proactive testing and tracing policy has enabled the country to rapidly identify positive cases and ensure they are provided with the medical care they need at an early stage, before their symptoms worsen. This has been central to Qatar’s comprehensive COVID-19 strategy which has enabled the country to achieve one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.
Qatar reported the first death from COVID-19 infection on March 28, 2020. A total of 668 deaths have been recorded in the country so far. Qatar has recorded one of the lowest death rates due to extensive testing, efficient vaccination campaign and significant healthcare spending.
At present, the Hamad Medical Corporation’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology has the capacity to process 5,000 to 6,000 COVID-19 tests a day. A total of 3,372,268 people have been tested for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Among the distinguished successes achieved by the health sector during 2021 was its implementation of the largest vaccination campaign in the history of Qatar for citizens and residents of the country for free. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are being administered in Qatar.
Qatar was ranked among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of COVID-19 vaccination coverage of the total population.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme has achieved high coverage rates, as over 87 percent of the total population has received two doses, which is one of the highest rates in the world. People are eligible for the third dose, six months after their second dose.
Since the start of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program on December 23, 2020, a total of 6,306,789 vaccine doses have been administered. The country rolled out the booster shot programme on September 15, 2021 and a total of 1,215,002 booster doses have been administered to date.
As a result of all these successful efforts, the Ministry will implement a new COVID-19 travel and return policy, which will come into force today (February 28, at 7pm Qatar time).
The policy updates include a revision of the previous Green, Red, Exceptional Red country list classifications, with the new policy featuring two categories of countries as Standard Health Measures and Red-List Health Measures.
The testing requirement before travelling to Qatar has also been changed to within 48 hours from departure time at the country of origin, while Qatari citizens and residents are not required to undergo a PCR test before returning to Qatar, regardless of the departure country, unless they are unvaccinated/non-immune coming from any of the countries that are subject to the Red Health Measures.
While Qatar earned these achievements at the national level, it has also showed a keen interest to contribute to replicate this achievement on a wider global scale.
Since the beginning of the crisis, Qatar has not hesitated to provide support, at the bilateral level and through international organisations, to countries that suffer from a lack of resources in a bid to provide vaccines and medical supplies.
This included Qatar’s partnership with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), through which $10m was provided to support the COVAX facility as a contribution to the purchase of 1.3 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines, with the aim of ensuring fair and equitable access to vaccines in 92 low-income countries.
The agreement was signed between Qatar and the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021 to support the Thirteenth General Program of Work of the World Health Organization (GPW 13), as well as the initiative to accelerate the availability of tools to combat COVID-19.
