Even as thousands of Non-Resident Indians are eagerly waiting to be homeward-bound, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations are attempting to stymie the outbreak of COVID-19 in different ways.
An early lockdown appears to have curbed the spread of the virus, but the success in battling it is still far away. The count in the six GCC nations (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait) is inching towards one lakh with nearly 500 deaths.
What is more worrying is that the majority of cases are Asian expatriates, including Indians, and in that category Non-Resident Keralites account for the highest number of cases and deaths. Besides, deaths go unreported due to the overlapping between comorbidity and COVID-19 mortality.
UAE-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust chairman K.V. Shamsudeen said only serious cases had been admitted to hospitals. “Others have been quarantined in their apartments. Many without proper living conditions for domestic quarantine have been transferred to makeshift institutional facilities,” he said.
Job losses
Already, expatriates are bearing the brunt of job losses and salary cuts. “The worst-affected are blue-collared workers,” he said, adding that oil prices had hit a historically low now. For hundreds of workers, he said, there was no point of staying without job.
Local governments have given a call to replace the foreign labour in Saudi and Oman. “This may be replicated in other nations despite the fact that the GCC nations depend on foreigners all these years. The UAE has warned labour-source countries such as India and Pakistan to repatriate their citizens,” an employee with a supermarket chain said.
Health-care workers getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 is another problem in the GCC countries. However, treatment for patients is done without any discrimination and testing is done by government agencies in Saudi Arabia. A few hotels have been converted into quarantine centres. With under-staffed hospitals, the situation in Kuwait has become awkward. “We are unable to differentiate between COVID-19- affected and other patients due to overcrowding,” a health-care worker said.
In Qatar, offices except schools are functioning with 20% staff. The pandemic entered the peak phase a few days ago. The number of infected people will increase in the coming days before it stabilises, a health official said.
At the same time, some Gulf countries have eased curfew with the start of the holy month of Ramzan. Shops and industrial establishments have opened in Bahrain which has not imposed a curfew. Total lockdown has been imposed within the governorates in Oman and in some places extended till May 30.
