Gulf Countries Responding to COVID-19

Abstract

Dear Editor,Since the outbreak, SARS-CoV-2 posed a near impossible challenge for containment and non-transmission around the globe. The outbreak was first recognized in early March in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and large-scale containment efforts started by the mid of March. The virus spread through the respiratory route, caused a spectrum of illnesses, including very mild cases, was rapidly transmitted between humans with an epidemic doubling time of about 1 week, and was surreptitiously spreading for at least 1 week. According to the WHO, the pandemic is accelerating at an exponential rate. The first 100,000 cases took 67 days, the second 100,000 took 11 days, the third 100,000 took just 4 days, and the fourth only 2 days. Now there are 100,000 individuals infected in 24 h. As more and more countries report cases, including those with no link to the disease epicenter, it is clear that there are many more unrecognized cases in the world and that community transmission is happening in many countries.The gulf countries, like others, released a series of protective measures in order to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel bans are an effective public health tool to control an epidemic disease [1], it was enforced in all gulf countries at different times. Saudi Arabia (SA) was the first gulf country to issue a ban on traveling to China on citizens and residents [2]. Additionally, SA has extended the travel ban to all international flights [1]. In Kuwait, all flights were suspended [3]. Citizens were prohibited temporarily from traveling abroad in the UAE [4]. In addition, the Civil Aviation Affairs in the Kingdom of Bahrain has announced that flights to and from Iraq and Lebanon are suspended until further notice [5].Religious activities in the gulf countries are essential for the population, ranging from the five daily prayers in mosques to umrah, which is a religious duty performed by Muslims in Mecca, SA (holy city for Muslims). While praying, people stand adjacent to each other with their shoulders touching; therefore, suspending all prayers at mosques was an essential step that was undertaken in all gulf countries [6]. In SA, not only umrah was suspended but also the two holy mosques were closed for most of the day [1].Various efforts were performed to ease the detection of possible cases. For instance, UAE launched a mobile drive-through test center, where individuals can get tested while remaining in their cars, therefore minimizing contact with other possible cases [7]. Moreover, the Abu Dhabi Health Services dedicated the Al Ain Hospital to coronavirus patients [8]. Furthermore, Oman has called for volunteers to aid in measures to combat COVID-19 [9].In SA, as part of the precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, King Abdullah Medical City, Mecca, has activated the virtual clinics initiative at outpatient clinics, serving more than 12,000 patients [10]. Moreover, the minister of health in SA has announced that medical doctors can issue e-prescription in an authenticated manner via an app [11].The gulf countries case fatality rate is low in comparison to the top COVID-19-striken countries (USA, China, Italy, Spain), age distribution being a possible explanation (Table 1) [12].The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.No funding was received.N.A. and F.A. conception of the letter; N.A., F.A., and S.B. collected the information; and all three authors wrote and reviewed the manuscript.

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