Covid-19 uptick not harbinger of new wave, says pandemic czar

AMMAN — Despite a recent rise in infections, Jordan is not experiencing a new wave of COVID-19, according to Adel Belbeisi, Health Affairs Adviser at the Prime Minister's Office and the country's pandemic czar, who also emphasized that weekly totals do not warrant fear and panic compared to previous waves, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.اضافة اعلان

A total of 2,135 infections and one death from the coronavirus were reported in the Kingdom during the 27th epidemiological week of 2022, which ran from July 2 to July 8.

In a statement to Petra, Belbeisi said that 10 to 15 percent of the total cases recorded in the previous epidemiological week required hospitalization and that only three deaths were recorded in the Kingdom for the last ten weeks.

He recalled that the first wave of the pandemic outbreak saw 37,000 infections per week, the second 56,000 infections, the third 35,000 infections, and the fourth 135,000 infections per week, caused mainly by the Omicron mutant.

Belbeisi emphasized that masks are still necessary, particularly for people with chronic diseases and the elderly, and cautioned that abandoning the legal requirement to wear masks does not mean that people should not be concerned about their health in enclosed spaces and at gatherings.

He also suggested that other indicators, such as hospital occupancy, mortality, the percentage of positive tests, and citizens' commitment to receiving the vaccine, should be given more consideration than the term "wave."

Belbeisi explained that the symptoms of infection with the highly transmissible mutation of the omicron COVID variant known as BA.5 are "less fierce" than those of infection with the earlier mutations, noting that the rate of infection with this mutation ranges between 20 and 25 percent of the total number of infections recorded weekly in the Kingdom.

He noted that the number of Coronavirus vaccine recipients aged 18 and older have reached 75 percent, which he described as a comfortable proportion compared to other countries around the world. He also revealed that the vaccination rate among those aged 60 and older has reached 65 percent.


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