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As coronavirus fear spreads around the world we’re seeing different nations taking different approaches in the battle to contain the virus’ spread and there’s one nation’s approach that has left me scratching my head because it seems a little half-baked.
Qatar has announced that effective today, it is banning the entry of travelers from 14 countries and it lists those countries as:
- Bangladesh
- China
- Egypt
- India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Lebanon
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- The Philippines
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Thailand
If that’s was all there was to the ban I’d probably think “fair enough” and move on…but there’s more:
“[T]hose with onward connections through Hamad International Airport are accepted for travel.“
Anyone who has ever visited Hammad International Airport will be able to tell you what a melting pot of people it really is (like most large airports) and just how often passengers come into contact with residents of Qatar.
All the people who work in the numerous duty-free stores, the lounges, at the gates and elsewhere in the airport, all live in Qatar and a lot of them will almost certainly come within range of one or more transit passengers from the banned countries or with something that one of those passengers has come into contact with.
I don’t see how the ban on select nationals entering Qatar is actually going to prevent the spread of the coronavirus into the country if large numbers of Qatar’s residents are continuing to come into contact with people traveling from these countries and then going home (in Qatar) at the end of every day.
Is Qatar planning to quarantine all residents that work at Hammad International airport?
Surely you either ban all travel to/from selected countries or not bother at all – it’s not like the virus recognizes Hammad Airport as a no-conflict zone!
Can anyone help me understand what Qatar thinks it’s going to achieve here?
It’s the money. If they ban all the transit passengers the airline would effectively bankrupt. So they decided to let people transit and closely watch the crew and airport staff. Either way they all live in a dorm. But I heard that they are quarantined on their dorm if they show any symptoms. Desperate times…
It’s about psychology.
It’s kinda like security theater. The security may or may not actually deter the bad people, but the whole show of WE-WILL-FRISK-YOU!!!! assures the public and strikes enough fear to bad people that the work can go on.
Same thing here. Covid-19, at its core, is essentially a very bad flu. You get flu-like symptoms from a virus (just like flu) that can be transmitted like flu. However, since it’s new and it’s a different virus, all the craze comes out (e.g. why banning the Philippines???? there are 20 cases for 100 million people!). Much of these are probably not warranted. Yes, you should wash your hands and avoid large gathering, extra careful if you are above 50 year old. But you really don’t need to ban Filipino. Seriously. 20 cases for 100 million people. Six-sigma safe has more cases. So, the government probably wants to throw up a big show, and hope that people will calm down enough to wash their hands.
Very strange. I’m in Australia at the moment for 3 months and they have loads of coronavirus cases but they aren’t on the list. And in Sri Lanka there aren’t many cases. Sounds very strange.
Prolong contact is the issue with the virus. Since passengers are transiting through the airport, the risk is not as high.
On the picture at the top, is that Doha on the left and the airport in the center? If so, Doha is much smaller than I’d imagined.
No, that’s the Al Bayt stadium in northern Qatar. Doha is big and modern (just as you probably imagine it to be).
Thebban is on travel from AND to these countries
If you look at the list of countries, you’ll see the country of origin of many maids, drivers, gardeners, low paid workers etc : Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh…
My guess would be they don’t want their helpers to leave and bring the virus into their homes.
The rich travelers from Europe (with thousands of cases) who stay in expensive hotels and shop at the malls are still welcome to spend their money in Doha or on Qatar Air….
The ban is on travel from AND to these countries
If you look at the list of countries, you’ll see the country of origin of many maids, drivers, gardeners, low paid workers etc : Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh…
My guess would be they don’t want their helpers to leave and bring the virus into their homes.
The rich travelers from Europe (with thousands of cases) who stay in expensive hotels and shop at the malls are still welcome to spend their money in Doha or on Qatar Air….
Italy has 100 deaths per day!! How are they not banned yet??
They don’t need to be banned because they’ve closed their own borders.
At which circumstances may banned people are allowed to come to Qatar?
These gulf countries are banning people based on countries they regard as third world countries. Some countries on the list have no coronavirus cases or at least only suspected and they still ban them while countires that have so many cases as in Europe and USA and Australia are not banned. It’s so stupid the way they design bans and as always they love to discriminate not based on a factual reason but just based on racism. That’s how they think all the time and this time it’s no different. I wish these countries would ban them back because these Arab countries have more cases than most of these banned countries.
Foolish country with its foolish bans. India has 70 cases in 1.3 billion population. It is on the list. Many other countries on the list have no cases or cases in single digits. On the other hand, Italy has 15000 cases in just 60 million population. But not on the list. UK has more than 600 cases and USA has more than 1300 but neither of them are on the list. They are not deciding on facts, they are pure and simple racists suffering from inferiority complex. With electric mobility (etc.), fossil fuels will soon lose value and you will see them begging on them streets of New Delhi.