April cruellest month of all

APRIL was indeed the cruellest month for Bahrain with Covid-19 infections and fatalities hitting a new high since the pandemic broke out in March last year.

The month recorded a total of 32,489 new infections with a daily average of 1,082 – a sharp increase from the previous three months.

March recorded 21,960 new cases, February 19,338 and January 10,382.

April also witnessed the highest number of fatalities – 125, pushing behind the previous record of 74 in February.

An average of four people died every day during the month while it was two in March (72 deaths in total) and February. In January, 23 people died from the complications of the virus.

The month recorded the highest number of daily cases ever – 1,316 – on April 3.

It also registered the oldest fatality, a 106-year-old male citizen, on April 12. He was among the eight who died in the country despite taking both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, until last month. The GDN earlier reported that he had underlying conditions and was under intensive care for a long period.

Bahrain until May 2 registered 651 deaths. The youngest who succumbed to the virus till date is a 20-year-old expatriate woman who died on March 24.

April witnessed five days with the highest daily toll of seven deaths each – April 16, 17, 22, 29 and 30, accounting for almost 30pc of the total 125 fatalities.

Weekly average was also the highest – 1,148 (April 8 to 14), while the remaining weeks recorded a high rate crossing a 1,000-mark (April 1 to 7 – 1,069, April 15 to 21 – 1,029 and April 22 to 28 – 1,076).

Weekly local and travel-related infections were the highest ever, again with the second week (April 8 to 14) witnessing 7,682 and 351 cases respectively.

The week from April 8 to 14 also registered the highest total number of cases – 8,033. The last week (Apr 22 to 28) followed close behind with 7,531 infections, April 1 to 7 (7,486) and April 15 to 21 (7,200).

All these surpassed the record set by the week from February 11 to 17, which witnessed a daily average of 779 Covid-19 cases.

The four weeks (from April 1 to 28) recorded 30,259 cases of which almost 61pc (18,359) were Bahrainis and 39pc (11,891) expatriates.

On the positive side, the month also saw a record number of people recovering from the infection, which stands at almost 94pc.

Bahrain as of Sunday registered 179,297 cases including 167,852 recoveries and 10,794 active cases.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s vaccination campaign has been progressing at a fast pace since December.

An average of 15,000 individuals a day took at least one shot last month, with the total standing at 471,043.

Until Sunday, 717,024 people were administered their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 547,063 have taken both the shots.

These account for 64.2pc and 48.8pc of the country’s estimated adult population of 1.12 million, a figure calculated based on inputs provided by National Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus monitoring committee head Lieutenant Colonel Manaf Al Qahtani during a Press conference last week.

The GDN reported that the task force was optimistic of achieving herd immunity (80 to 90pc of the population) soon, while aiming to fully vaccinate up to 60pc of the adult population by this month end.

The country offers free Covid-19 vaccination to its people and provides them four choices – Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford and Sputnik V.

Bahrain has conducted over 4m tests for Covid-19.

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/943966/April-cruellest-month-of-all