Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Saidi, Minister of Health, member of the Supreme Committee tasked with tackling developments resulting from coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, has said that the past six weeks in the Sultanate’s pandemic scenario witnessed annoying, deplorable and frightful changes.
The current situation is a far cry from our experience during the first months of the pandemic outbreak, when we all managed to limit the number of infection cases due to the cooperation of all people and their adherence to precautionary measure set by the Supreme Committee, the Minister explained, according to an official press release.
“It is really sad that our experience suffered a radical setback over the past 6 months as a result of the nonchalance of some people, leading to an astonishing surge in new cases of infection, hitting higher than 9,000!” said the minister, noting that more than 43 deaths occurred just within a span of one week, from last Thursday.
The minister made the statement during the 12th press conference held on Thursday, by the Supreme Covid-19 Control Committee since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Minister of Health underscored that responsibility should be “collective between the government as institutions and as individuals”. He pointed out that failure to stick to health guidelines can cause the transfer of the infection to people having chronic diseases or elderly people, causing severe suffering or even death in some cases.
He added, “It is high time we acted firm with offenders. Their names should be announced.” The minister said that deliberate offence causing infection is considered an equivalent of murder. “In order to sense the risk, we should all feel as potential carriers of the virus,” said the minister.
The Minister of Health said that the health establishments in the Sultanate are still intact and coping. He also spoke about a plan to increase the capacity of intensive care units.
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