BAHRAIN is moving towards “flattening the curve” as it tackles the spread of Covid-19, the GDN reported today.

This is a positive sign as the country continues to work on a well-planned set of health and safety measures, according to National Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus (Covid-19) monitoring committee head Lieutenant Colonel Dr Manaf Al Qahtani.

“Comparing Bahrain with other countries since the registration of the first 100 existing cases, Bahrain has been exceptionally ready to deal with this,” said Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani.

“We can say that Bahrain is much better than any other country which has seen an increase in the number of active cases.

“The figures of the Health Ministry reflect that Bahrain is moving towards flattening the curve.

“With the increase (in cases), we are correcting the line, the curve is not going up but is steady, which is a good sign.”

He was addressing an online Press conference held yesterday alongside Foreign Affairs Under-Secretary Dr Shaikha Rana bint Isa Al Khalifa, Labour Market Regulatory Authority chief executive Ausamah Al Absi, Health Ministry Under-Secretary Dr Waleed Al Manea and SMC infectious and internal diseases consultant Dr Jameela Al Salman.

Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani also assessed the readiness of the country in terms of treatment, food and security, stressing how people have been leading a somewhat normal life within the necessary precautionary measures.

“We are in the 10th week and it is an appropriate time to analyse the precautionary measures based on three pillars: treatment, food and security,” he explained.

“These three are important for the normal living of human beings and hence crucial in assessing the country’s readiness.

“We still have the capacity for tests and a professional medical team and the capacity for treatment and isolation facilities.

“We don’t have any authorities impacted and we still have medical equipment – so this proves that our plans have been successful.

“I can also confirm on the food stock and the security that we are living a normal life in the kingdom within precautionary measures set for combating Covid-19.”

Meanwhile, Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani said Bahrain could delay a potential second wave of the virus if it continued with enforcing existing measures.

“We may see that some countries who return back to normal life immediately after a curfew may have the possibility of having a second wave,” he said.

“In Bahrain if we go with the same methodology, I don’t think we may have a noticeable second wave.

“We might have an increase in the number of active cases in the winter if we still have cases then.”

Referring to a recent study conducted by the Singapore University of Technology and Design, Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani said the virus could be “largely seasonal” in Bahrain.

The GDN reported on Monday that the study predicted that the spread of Covid-19 could start to decline from May 16 in Bahrain.

The Artificial Intelligence driven data analysis also suggests that the virus will end by 97 per cent in Bahrain around August 7.

“We hope this will finish by the summer, but scientifically speaking if we have a pandemic there are three possibilities,” explained Lt Col Dr Al Qahtani.

“Either it will end by itself as mentioned by the Singapore study or the virus will be seasonal as we saw in the past with other viruses like the H1N1 or a pandemic that will be within a country.”

He added that scientifically there was still no confirmation on how this pandemic will progress or its actual source.