Health officials believe that it can help curb the spread of the coronavirus among community members.
As health officials publicly address the latest surge in daily Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, people were urged to maintain “social bubbles” in order to contain the spread of the virus.
But what is the social bubble and how can we follow it?
According to Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chairman of the National Pandemic Preparedness Committee, the social bubble system is applied when a specific group of people frequently meet in limited numbers, without mixing with others. This is to limit their physical contact with other members of society or groups.
“If families and group of friends manage to maintain these bubbles, then we will be able to contain the virus,” Dr. Al Khal was quoted by the Ministry of Public Health [MoPH].
The social bubble system was introduced during a press conference held on Wednesday night, where health ministry officials revealed that the increase in the daily infections rate is linked to public negligence to precautionary health measures as well as the emergence of the UK variant.
Read also: Qatar clamps down with more restrictions as Covid-19 cases surge
According to the local officials, the recently-detected UK strain contributed greatly to Qatar’s rising cases, particularly those requiring hospital admissions. This is due to the severity of the strain, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mohammed, Acting Head of the Intensive Care Department at the Hamad Medical Corporation [HMC], said.
“In the past two weeks alone, we have seen an 82% increase in the number of people infected with the virus in intensive care units,” he said.
Al-Mohammed added that 40% of the cases in intensive care during the current wave are under the age of 50.
The number of daily infections rate is expected to increase over the next two weeks, he warned.
“We were able to contain the infection rate in February, but the cases recently began increasing and we are now seeing a second wave,” added Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on Covid-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at HMC.
In response to the latest spike in cases, the Cabinet imposed new restrictions that aim to contain the spread of the virus, especially before Ramadan.
“We aim to contain the spread earlier in order to allow everyone to celebrate Eid Al Fitr,” said Al Khal.
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