ICU patients at five-month low

@kabeeryousef

The number of coronavirus patients in the intensive care units (ICUs) in hospitals hit a five-month low of 98, thanks to the lockdown measures of the Supreme Committee as well as the cooperation of the people. The death toll also fell significantly on Tuesday,

“The reduction in the number of patients in the ICU was possible because of the four-day total lockdown and other measures, including evening ban on commercial activities and movement of people,” said Dr Faryal al Lawati, Senior Consultant of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Contagious Diseases Unit at Royal Hospital.

“The surge we experienced until recently was due to the people’s lax precautionary measures like reluctance to wear face masks properly, sanitise hands and to avoid gatherings during funerals and shopping and least importance to social distancing which caused rise in cases,” she said.

The Sultanate has experienced an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 infection cases until a month ago, causing an influx of patients admitted to various hospital wards and ICUs. As many as 173 new cases of coronavirus were registered in the Sultanate during the past 24 hours.

This brings the total number of positive Covid-19 cases to 300,581 in the Sultanate.

The total number of Covid-19-related deaths reached 4,007, the Ministry of Health said. The ministry added that 220 new cases have recovered, bringing the total number to 288,922 recoveries. 96.1 per cent of people have recovered from the virus. The ministry said 7,652 people are infected with Covid-19 in the country.