Qatar has witnessed the world’s highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate but one of the lowest death rates due to extensive testing, a young population and significant healthcare spending.
With 40,702 cases per million since the pandemic began, Qatar is followed by Bahrain, which has seen nearly 29,000 cases per million, and San Marino at more than 21,000.
Qatar is home to some 2.88 million people, more than two million of whom are migrant workers.
Highest per-capita infection rate
Qatar’s health authorities are adamant their high per-capita infection rate is down to one factor above all: Testing.
Almost 600,000 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus as of Tuesday – that is more than a fifth of the population.
“Because of our low threshold for testing, we have identified many more asymptomatic and mild cases of the virus than other countries,” the chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 Abdullatif al-Khal told the AFP news agency.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/record-infections-deaths-qatar-tackled-covid-19-200826062455468.html