The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations are battling to contain the spread of COVID-19 even as several Indian organisations are coordinating with their governments to deal with the raging situation.
Earlier, a sort of uncertainty had prevailed over a large section of the expatriate Indians as the number of positive cases rapidly rose across the region.
Adding to the woes of the non-resident Indians (NRIs), the Supreme Court order deferred for four weeks all petitions relating to the Indians stranded in various countries and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, UAE, said that it would consider reviewing labour agreements with countries which refuse to accept the re-entry of their nationals currently employed in the private sector.
As on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia recorded 5,369 cases with death toll touching 73; United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 4,521 cases with 25 deaths; Kuwait - 1,355 cases with three deaths, Qatar - 3,428 cases with 7 deaths, Bahrain - 1,522 cases with 7 deaths and Oman - 813 cases with four deaths.
Nevertheless, the governments in GCC nations are not letting down their guard to fight the pandemic outbreak after Bahrain recorded the first death in the West Asia region, that of a 65-year-old woman, on March 16. Incidentally, the UAE was the first country that reported the first case of COVID-19, a 73-year-old Chinese woman on January 29.
Initially the regional health authorities were finding it difficult in taking stock of the safety of the expatriates from multiple nationalities and cultures.
With its massive testing measures including drive-through sites and home-testing services for people with disabilities, the UAE government is expecting to flatten the curve in a fortnight. The UAE has conducted nearly 6,48,195 tests so far. In a major relief to the expatriates, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai has said that entry permits (visit,tourist or any other sort of visa) for those inside or outside the country are valid until the end of December 2020, provided they have expired after March 1 this year.
In Qatar, the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management, has said that all residents would benefit from free healthcare without exception or discrimination. It has built field hospitals with sufficient capacity reaching to 12,000 beds especially for COVID-19 infected patients.
With Saudi Arabia imposing a 24-hour curfew in all major cities, the rate of daily increase has been stable than its GCC neighbours. The island country of Baharin has enforced multiple restrictions to combat the spread of the virus.
So has Kuwait, though its capital city has the highest daily percentage increase in the region.
In the case of Oman, a complete lockdown has been effected in capital Muscat which saw an exponential rate in positive cases.