This is called a heavy-handed sanction. In Qatar, offenders wearing a mask, made compulsory from Sunday as part of the fight against the Covid-19, face a penalty of up to three years in prison and 200,000 rials (51,000 euros). The decision was announced Thursday, May 14, in the wake of the release of daily figures for the epidemic, showing that not only is the epidemic continuing to spread in the emirate, but that its rate of spread is accelerating.
Qatar has identified 29,425 cases of contamination on its soil, which, when compared to its 2.8 million inhabitants, makes it one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus in the world. The country detected 1,733 new carriers of the virus on Thursday, the highest result since the disease appeared on the peninsula in early March, indicating that the peak of the epidemic has yet to be reached.
To deal with the virus, the government of Qatar has opted for mass screening – which also explains the high number of cases – in order to break the chains of contamination. The test is free and the government has agreed to pay the wages of anyone quarantined. For the luckiest – and probably the wealthiest too – this phase of isolation takes place in a luxury hotel.
Promiscuity of migrant workers
One of the main factors behind the spread is the overcrowding in which part of the migrant workers – of Indian, Nepalese, Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi origin – make up 90% of the population of the peninsula. Even if the authorities have built in recent years gigantic workers' housing estates, where employees of the emirate shipyards sleep four per 25 m room2, in roughly decent conditions, a substantial number of them continue to huddle together in eight in unsanitary turns, half as large, where social distancing is simply impossible.
Barrier gestures are hardly easier to apply on construction sites, where work has never stopped since the arrival of the coronavirus. The approach of the 2022 World Cup, organized in the emirate, requires continuing to build the stadiums and infrastructures necessary for competition. The exact impact of the measures taken by the authorities to avoid the rushes that are conducive to the transmission of the virus – such as the disinfection of buses transporting workers and the staggering of arrivals and departures – remains difficult to measure.
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