DUBAI: The six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have recorded more than 1 million cases of infection with COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally of data published by each government. The tally in the energy producing region of more than 50 million people stood on Monday at 1,001,182 infections, with 9,162 deaths.
Saudi Arabia, which has the highest regional count at more than 355,000 infections and 5,780 deaths, has seen a downward trend in daily case numbers since early July when it was registering around 4,000 cases a day for a few weeks. Saudi partially lifted its suspension of international flights mid-September and has said it will lift all restrictions on citizens’ foreign travel on January 1.
The country of around 34 million people recorded 224 new cases on Sunday. Cases in the United Arab Emirates, with the second highest infection count, rose steadily since early August to a high of 1,578 new daily cases in late October. New daily cases in the country of 9.8 million have since dropped back to around 1,200.
Kuwait’s daily case numbers have fluctuated between 900 and 400 a day since early May, and cases in Qatar have seen a steady fluctuation between 200 and 300 new cases a day since early August. Oman saw a surge in new cases around early October, but daily reported numbers have fallen since. Cases in Bahrain, which has the GCC’s smallest population of around 1.5 million, have been falling since mid-September.
GAZA CASES SOAR
A sharp rise in coronavirus infections in the Gaza Strip could overwhelm the Palestinian enclave’s meagre medical system by next week, public health advisers said on Sunday.
Gaza, where the dense and poor population of 2 million is vulnerable to contagions, has logged 14,000 coronavirus cases and 65 deaths, mostly since August. Seventy-nine of Gaza’s 100 ventilators have been taken up by COVID-19 patients, said Abdelraouf Elmanama, a microbiologist who is part of the enclave’s pandemic task force.
“In 10 days the health system will become unable to absorb such a hike in cases and there might be cases that will not find a place at intensive care units,” he said, adding that the current 0.05 per cent mortality rate among COVID-19 patients could rise.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers have so far imposed one lockdown. A long-standing Israeli blockade, which is supported by neighbouring Egypt, has crippled the Gazan economy and undermined its public health apparatus. Israel says it is trying to keep weapons from reaching Hamas, against which it has fought three wars and whose facilities it struck earlier on Sunday in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket launch against one of its southern cities.
“We are not giving Hamas any ‘coronavirus discounts’,” Israeli cabinet minister Izhar Shay told Army Radio. “We will continue responding as appropriate.” But Shay said Israel was enabling international humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, adding: “This is the level that we can preserve in the coronavirus context.”
Abdelnaser Soboh, emergency health lead in the World Health Organization’s Gaza sub-office, cautioned, however, that “within a week, we will become unable to care for critical cases”. The infection rate among those being tested was 21 per cent, with a relative increase in carriers over the age of 60, he said. “This is a dangerous indicator since most of (those over 60) may need to be hospitalised,” Soboh added.
Meanwhile, Iran recorded 13,053 new cases of coronavirus and 475 related deaths over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday. That took the total death toll to 44,802 and the tally of cases to 854,361 in the Middle East’s worst-hit state.
On Saturday, Iran introduced tougher restrictions for two weeks to stem a third wave of coronavirus infections, including closing non-essential businesses and travel curbs. Some Iranian authorities have warned that daily coronavirus deaths could reach 1,200 if the nation failed to respect health protocols. — Reuters
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