Spike ‘was from within country’

A SENIOR medic yesterday dismissed claims that keeping Bahrain’s ports open had led to the recent spike in coronavirus (Covid-19) cases.

National Taskforce for Combating Covid-19 Monitoring Committee head Lieutenant Colonel Dr Manaf Al Qahtani said the option to close Bahrain International Airport and King Fahad Causeway was ‘always’ on the ‘table’ to be adopted if needed.

However, statistics reveal that surge in cases was “from within the country and not from outside”, he said.

Authorities last week blamed family gatherings for the spike – asserting that it contributed to more than 70pc of the active cases.

Dr Al Qahtani was speaking at a Press conference held remotely from the Crown Prince Centre for Training and Medical Research, Riffa.

He also dismissed allegations that Bahrain was deliberately reducing the number of daily PCR tests to show fewer cases.

“Bahrain has not reduced the number of tests,” he said.

“If existing Covid-19 cases are left unmonitored and untracked, it could lead to an increase in the number of deaths.

Situation

“We need to deal with the actual situation and not adopt methods that reflect inaccurate statistics, which in turn would increase the risk to society.

“Daily tests are carried out to track infections and speed up their treatment.

“We are conducting a large number of tests on a daily basis to save lives.”

He called on people to keep track of Covid-19 symptoms and report to medics at the earliest.

“Several patients who had moderate to critical infections did not arrive at examination and treatment centres as soon as they discovered the symptoms.

“This led to fatalities and virus mutations.”

Bahrain registered 46 deaths in two days – 28 on Monday, the highest daily toll since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. The virus claimed the lives of 27 Bahrainis and 19 expats in these two days.

Dr Al Qahtani also dismissed ‘black fungus’ as an infection unrelated to the coronavirus.

“Neither the black nor white fungus is new. It is not a disease related to Covid-19.

“It is not infectious.

“The fungi were detected in India perhaps due to misuse of medicines which led to lesser immunity in people.”

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/946080/Spike-%E2%80%98was-from-within-country%E2%80%99

 

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