Bahrein With Best Anti-Covid Policy

The Bahraini government's approach to dealing with Covid has been praised as one of the best around the World.

Bahrain has done roughly four million rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) since August 2020, allowing residents to monitor their own health.

Bahrain was six months ahead of schedule in preparing for the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic waves, according to an expert.

On the theme of 'Building Resilient Healthcare Systems in the Gulf,' he spoke on a panel at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Bahrain yesterday discussing Bahrain as a case study.

"I just want to stress that Bahrain was six months ahead of the waves in terms of dealing with the virus and testing," Mr. Cordahi said.

"It was essentially a struggle (against Covid), and let's be honest, the war isn't over yet, since the World Health Organization reports that the epidemic is still ongoing, but the worst is over."

"Congratulations to Bahrain for being adaptable in a difficult situation and for being the first in the area to abandon point-of-care Covid-19 antigen testing."

Bahrain has done roughly four million rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) since August 2020, allowing residents to monitor their own health.

"When it comes to testing, laboratory testing is the main focus. Covid-19 has showed that self-testing, which was previously unheard of in this part of the world, is now commonplace.

Dr. Al Qahtani described four principles that were unique to Bahrain and helped the country battle the epidemic successfully: preparedness through personal data collecting, observation and forecasting, communication, and the use of diverse treatment procedures.

"Not just in terms of health, but also in terms of economy and education, we were well-prepared." When we developed the resiliency system, we made sure that Covid and non-Covid channels were completely separated."

This ensured that non-Covid situations were handled by a different team.

"We started with one PCR testing lab and now have 16 qualified labs with the ability to conduct up to 30,000 tests each week, up from the previous 100 tests per week, because forecasting, monitoring, and testing are so important."

Daily briefings by top executives with the national task force, a meeting with the medical team, and open communication with the general public were all employed.

"We also had to train all of the personnel since we knew there would be some instances who needed to be transferred to an intensive care unit at some point" (ICU).

"We've built up a capacity of 7,000 beds and 500 ICU beds in just over a year and a half to care for just Covid-19."

"All of this was communicated to the broader public, which was essential in gaining their trust."

"Finally, you must pay for the essential equipment in the event of a pandemic, which includes not just testing and immunizations, but also therapy."

"As a result, many different therapeutics, primarily monoclonals, have been secured in Bahrain; we are the first in the region to establish the first outpatient clinic for monoclonal therapy (a method of treating Covid-19 to help prevent hospitalizations, reduce viral loads, and reduce symptom severity)."