AMMAN — Eid
Al-Adha is typically a holiday filled with family visits, warm embraces, and
the sharing of food. But health experts and officials are urging Jordanians to
maintain social distancing and other safety measures to prevent the spread of
COVID-19.
اضافة اعلان
For the past
few weeks, Jordan’s confirmed COVID-19 cases have hovered between 400 and 600
per day (between July 1 and 10, the daily average was 495 cases). But on
Monday, the number jumped to 767 and the positivity rate hit 3.7 percent -
spiking fears that a third wave of the pandemic is on the way. The positivity
rate dropped back to 2.9 percent on Tuesday, but experts and health officials
alike are still calling for adherence to safety measures.
Minister of
Health Firas Hawari told local media that Monday’s rise in cases is “alarming.”
He called for the adherence to all defense orders and for all citizens to wear
masks and practice social distancing.
"This
increase in infections (requires) all of us to be serious in adhering to safety
procedures and means of preventing the coronavirus and its variants,” Hawari
said, “and also calls for those who have not yet taken the initiative to take
the vaccine to immunize themselves and to immunize their family and the
community around them.”
According to
Mohannad Al-Nsour, member of the
National Epidemiological Committee and
executive director of the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, it is critical
for Jordanians to follow safety measures during the holiday. Eid Al-Adha is
typically associated with huge gatherings, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and
prolonged family visits.
“Coming to
eid, we have to be careful,” said Nsour. “We don’t want to go back to the big
visits, kissing, these things.”
Nsour also
noted that more critical than the number of cases recorded in the country is
the positivity rate. “Monday’s figure was a critical point, with the positivity
rate rising to reach 3.7 percent, which was the highest in the last ten weeks,”
he said. “In May, it was 4.67 percent.”
The
following day, the ratio dropped to 2.9 percent.
According to
the
World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommendations, it is ideal for a
country’s positivity rate to stay below five percent. But Nsour noted that even
rising to seven or eight percent would not be debilitating for Jordan.
Delta
variant takes over
As Jordan
News previously reported, as many as 80 percent of the COVID-19 cases in the
country currently are the extra-contagious Delta strain, which originated in
India.
“This means
high positivity and high infectivity,” said Nsour. “We expect to receive more
cases.”
The spread
of the highly transmissible strain makes it all the more important for
individuals to follow safety precautions. The Delta strain could threaten the
progress the country has made to staving off the virus.
The
epidemiologist urged the importance of following indicators other than the positivity
rate and number of confirmed cases, such as hospital indicators: admission
rate, ICU occupancy, and other factors.
“This is
very important, because if we have only mild and moderate cases and our
healthcare system is not very occupied, we can survive,” he said.
The existing
COVID-19 vaccines have shown to be effective, albeit less so, against the Delta
variant.
Vaccination
drive slows down
Nsour
praised the country’s vaccination efforts. As of Tuesday, 2,658,675 individuals
across Jordan have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 1,707,622
have received both doses. 3,341,685 individuals are registered on the vaccine
platform, vaccine.jo.
However, the
Ministry of Health has noted recently that registration on the platform has
stalled, and has toyed with the idea of opening all vaccine centers to those
without appointments to encourage vaccination.
“Now we have
vaccines, but we don’t have people,” Nsour commented. “The Ministry of Health
and the government in general added new strategies that will help the country
to move forward with the vaccines.”
According to
Nsour, the combination of the sizeable rate of vaccination in the country with
the high proportion of those who have already recovered from the virus means
that the next wave of the pandemic – if it comes - will likely be gentler than
the devastating second wave.
However,
this is not justification to abandon safety measures. “Because what we saw with
the (Delta) variant, we can see the vaccine efficacy has been changed. We start
seeing reinfection for certain groups. So we can’t generalize. We have to be
careful. We do not want to give the impression that we can do whatever we
want,” he said.
MPs meet
with WHO
The Lower House’s Health and
Environment Committee met with the representative of the World Health
Organization in Jordan to discuss the epidemiological situation on Tuesday. The
meeting followed Monday’s spike in the Kingdom’s COVID-19 positivity rate.
Head of the panel, MP Ahmed
Al-Sarahneh, told
Jordan News that the meeting was to discuss the health
situation in Jordan in general and also to discuss the epidemiological
development and the Corona pandemic in particular.
Sarahneh added that the Jordanian
experience in managing the epidemiological situation was discussed, and the key
piece of advice was adherence to hygienic precautions and health protocols.
The deputy said that the importance
of taking vaccinations was emphasized, adding that the lack of recognition by
some countries of some vaccinations - like Sinopharm - was discussed.
“The answer of the representative of
the World Health Organization was that all the vaccinations in place are good
and effective, and the reason that prevents some countries from recognizing
these vaccines is a political and economic reason and nothing more,” explained
Sarahneh.
The deputy added that the World
Health Organization has no authority to force a country to recognize a type of
vaccine.
He said that Jordan faces an
increased number of coronavirus cases, “thus we may see a third wave of the
pandemic.”
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