Qatar is in talks with coronavirus vaccine makers to ensure all fans
attending the 2022 World Cup in the country have been vaccinated, the foreign
minister said Friday.
اضافة اعلان
The Gulf nation is facing a resurgence of virus cases and deaths despite
progress in its mass vaccination program, forcing authorities to impose a
nationwide lockdown.
"We have been negotiating and talking to the vaccination providers on
how we can make sure that everyone attending the World Cup is vaccinated,"
Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said.
"Right now there are programs under development to provide vaccination
to all the attendees of the World Cup," he added during the Raisina
Dialogue, a virtual event hosted by the Observer Research Foundation.
"We will be able, hopefully, to host a COVID-free event. We also hope
that globally the pandemic will start to go down and disappear."
Globally no one vaccine certification system has yet been universally
accepted or recognized, though the International Air Transport Association
(IATA) Travel Pass has gained popularity amongst Gulf airlines including Qatar
Airways.
As of Friday, 194,930 of Qatar's 2.75 million people have tested positive
for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, with 21,965 currently active
cases -- almost one percent of the population.
Over 26,000 vaccine jabs were administered on Friday, bringing the total to
1,209,648 doses, according to official data.
One in five of the 367 deaths Qatar has suffered since the start of the
pandemic has been reported this month with officials blaming the more virulent
British variant.
Last week Qatar announced the reimposition of strict lockdown measures,
banning most indoor activities except retail and work in an effort to contain
the virus.
Qatar has defied soaring coronavirus case numbers to stage several high
profile global sporting events in recent months, serving as a test bed for
different restrictions but also suffering high-profile infection cases.
The wealthy Gulf nation has bucked the trend of more established sporting
nations which have cancelled or postponed a slew of leading events, instead
hosting soccer, tennis, motorcycling, judo and beach volleyball since January.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has previously said that measures to contain the
coronavirus will need to be taken during the 2022 tournament but did not given
details.
"Maybe some precautionary measures have to be taken," he told AFP
during the
FIFA Club World Cup in Doha in February.
As well as saying unspecified distancing measures could still be in place
for next year's World Cup, Infantino suggested
FIFA could
"concretely" help travelling fans from countries with patchy vaccine
rollouts.
"We need to see how the situation looks by then. It's very difficult to
foresee now.
"It will take a little bit of time, and we have two years of time to
come back to some sort of normality."
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