Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The pandemic indicators recorded a real decline this time in Bahrain over the past two weeks, in which the mortality rate fell to 4 per day during the past week, and 10 per day during the week prior to that, after it was recording a rise in the first half of this month by 20 deaths during the first week.

The daily average of critical cases (in intensive care rooms) also fell to 104 in the last week, from more than 300 during the first week of this month.

However, the average cases receiving treatment have also fallen to 54 during the previous week, after there were more than 400 cases during the first week of June.

Observers and doctors questioned the pace of decline that the authorities boasted about two weeks after the re-imposition of strict measures that included the closure of business sectors. A report published by Bahrain Mirror concluded that the indicators did not decline but worsened during the first two weeks of June. The report said that the authorities misled public opinion about the figures after changing the screening protocols that canceled the examination of all people in contact with active cases, which immediately led to a significant decline in the number of tests and thus a significant decline (that doesn't reflect reality) in the number of recorded cases. 

Several countries use this policy to cope with the pressure on health resources, but official figures in Bahrain have shown a severe imbalance in the proportion and proportionality between the numbers of recorded cases against the numbers of deaths and cases that continued to be admitted to the intensive care rooms or undergo treatment.

Dr. Kassim Omran, a U.S.-based consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine, commented on these statistics saying that "in the epidemic waves, infections and deaths rate increase and decrease in a specific and familiar pattern, however, the decline in this wave seems to be fake."

Although there has been a gradual decline in mortality and critical cases, official statistics show that June's figures exceeded that of May in terms of deaths, which reached 361 in June, compared with 334 in May.

On the other hand, the total number of cases recorded in June after the protocol was changed fell to only about 27,000, compared to 63,000 in May, a decrease of more than 57%.

It was also strange that the recent statistics witnessed an overturn in the ratio between cases receiving treatment and those entering intensive care, as the number of cases receiving treatment were always more than the cases in the intensive care rooms (since the beginning of the epidemic), by more than 25% (and up to 50%  sometimes). However, the number of cases entering intensive care rooms suddenly became higher than those receiving treatment as of the middle of the month, at 46%, indicating a disturbance and inconsistency in the numbers.

These contradictions led the government to extend the closure for another week ending on Thursday, without announcing to this point whether there is another extension, five weeks after the measures were imposed.

With the end of this wave that led to question the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign in Bahrain and the effectiveness of remedial measures, observers wonder if this is indeed the last wave. Public opinion has accused the authorities in Bahrain of impotence, negligence and mismanagement of the issue since the beginning of this year. The most important point which was criticized was the failure to close airspace in the face of those coming from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan after the discovery of the Indian mutated virus (Delta), the most dangerous Coronavirus strain to date, and the transformation of Bahrain into a quarantine for those who want to cross the world from these countries.

According to a Forbes report, Bahrain's third Coronavirus wave is "five times more deadly than India, by the criterion of mortality to population, although half of them have been vaccinated."

Compared to the world's experiences, a major policy imbalance has caused nearly 1,000 deaths from Coronavurus since the beginning of the year, compared to only 351 deaths over the past year, in a country of no more than 1.7 million population.

After burying 700 victims (dozens of them young) in just two months, Bahrain has finally breathed a sigh of relief, but, before the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister announced the elimination of Coronavirus in Bahrain and celebrate what he will call an achievement by his government, there must remain a voice that always reminds him of the victims and the heavy loss in lives that were caused by his management of the crisis. These disastrous figures must not become a "past" and must be confronted.

Will this bitter experience affect the government's decision-making mechanism? Can we ensure that this disaster won't happen again? Will the Bahrain team remember the dozens of funerals? Will the Crown Prince remember (as he reviews the government reports and officials suggestions) the number of times in which it was said that a whole family died of Coronavirus? Is this indeed the end of Coronavirus in Bahrain? We pray that it will be.  

Arabic Version