Concentration of workers led to rise in COVID-19 cases in Seeb

Muscat: Tarassud, the coronavirus monitoring app launched by the Ministry, showed that with 233 cases, Seeb had registered the most number of cases in the governorate of Muscat as of Wednesday. A total of 6,274 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the wilayat of Seeb, which exceeds the number in wilayat of Muttrah. Bausher has registered 81 new cases with a total of 5,025 cases.
Dr Fatimah Al Ajmi, Director-General of Health Services in the Governorate of Muscat, said to Oman TV: “Each wilayat has a specific characteristic. The wilayat of Muttrah has different infrastructure compared to other wilayats and with initial focus on Muttrah, we were able to reduce the numbers of COVID -19 cases in the wilayat.”
”This success has been achieved primarily due to cooperation of the people of the wilayat and their commitment. When comparing Omanis to expatriate workers in the wilayat, we can find that the number of cases of infection among Omanis is less than among expatriates. With active investigation, we were able to reduce the percentage of infections,” she explained
“Other wilayats, such as Bausher have many companies and this means many expatriate workers live here. Labour gatherings in the industrial zone in Ghala have led to rise in cases.
"In Ghala Medical Centre we are receiving up to 200 cases of expats per day. So the concentration of companies in this region explains the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Bausher,” she added.
She explained that one of the causes could be gatherings during Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr where people failed to maintain social distancing and did not wear masks. Same set of reasons have been responsible for the spike in cases in Seeb, especially in the industrial area of Al Mabellah.