BAHRAIN recorded a new milestone with no Covid-19 patients under critical care on Tuesday, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.
No coronavirus patients were under treatment on the day, another achievement for the country that’s taking all measures to vanquish the deadly virus that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan two years ago.
Two cases were under critical care on Monday.
According to medical definition, those under critical care need ventilation support and are at higher risk, while those under treatment receive various levels of medication while admitted in hospitals.
This month critical cases ranged between two to three a day, while those receiving treatment ranged from one to six - until Tuesday when both categories hit the zero mark.
Meanwhile, active coronavirus cases dropped by 73 per cent during the last three months.
The country had 951 active infections on September 1 which dropped to 256 on Tuesday. The number of active cases had dropped to 213 on November 18 - the lowest in a year.
However, daily new cases reflected a slight increase last week – with infections hitting 41 on Sunday, the highest in two weeks.
The GDN reported earlier that the month saw the lowest number of daily infections since the onset of the pandemic – 15 – on November 9.
A total of 615 new cases were registered this month (until Tuesday) – an average of 27 a day. This is a huge drop from last month which witnessed an average of 57 infections a day. Last month recorded 1,771 new cases with the highest daily tally of the month – 88 – on October 17 and the lowest of 27 on October 26.
Critical cases last month ranged from one to five while those receiving treatment were at an average of five.
Bahrain’s recovery rate remains impressive at 99.95pc, while the virus to date has claimed 1,394 lives – the latest on Saturday.
While July witnessed 32 deaths from complications of the virus, four fatalities were registered in August, one in September and four last month.
June recorded the highest death toll of 372, followed by 334 in May, 125 in April, 72 in March, 74 in February and 23 in January. A total of 352 people died from Covid complications last year with the first fatality registered on March 16.
Bahrain’s success in combating Covid-19 has been attributed to its TTT policy – Trace, Test and Treat – a proven strategy which tracks people infected and traces their contacts, helping to reduce the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the kingdom is closing in on ‘herd immunity’ with almost 77pc of its population fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.
Bahrain would need to double-jab an estimated 1,200,000 people to achieve the milestone.
The national vaccination campaign, launched on December 17 last year, has covered 1,154,943 people with two doses of a vaccine till date. This accounts for 76.9pc of the total population of 1.5 million; 1,186,294 people (79.8pc) have taken at least one dose.
Experts estimate that ‘herd immunity’ would require around 80-90pc of the population to have Covid-19 immunity, either through prior infection or vaccination.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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