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Covid-19 in Oman

Last update: 08/11/2020

Travel in Oman at the time of coronavirus

After being closed for 6 months, Muscat International Airport reopened on the 1st of October 2020, with limited flight frequencies. So far, the country is only opened to residents and people traveling for business.
Tourism visa delivery did not restart yet and should be done in 2 phases: regional tourism first (from Gulf Cooperation Council countries) then international tourism. No date was announced so far.
Presently, people entering into Omani territory should present a negative PCR test made before departure, undergo another test upon arrival and quarantine for a minimum of 7 days. 
 
Since June 2020, domestic tourism has started again and hotels have progressively reopened. There, the new sanitary and social distancing measures are of course applied: complete and regular disinfection of the rooms and shared areas, temperature checking, mask and gloves wearing, staff training, specific measures in the kitchen, hand sanitiser available throughout the hotel, etc.
Restaurants are also open but people less than 12 years old or more than 60 are not yet authorised to eat in.

Tour operators also received instructions from the Ministry of Tourism - mainly limiting the group size to a maximum of 16 clients, checking systematically the clients’ health insurance cover and making thermometers available to the drivers/guides. These instructions will very certainly be renewed and completed before the reopening of the country to foreign tourists.
 
To limit the risks of infection, the services offered by Oman Self Drive Tours have several advantages: you travel as a couple, family or small group of friends and you drive your own car, without driver or guide. If you want to avoid large hotels, we offer many small accommodations, from rustic to very comfortable and from a private house to a guesthouse of only a few rooms. Moreover, with only 15 inhabitants/km² in Oman, it is easy to respect the safety distances during our nature, adventure and hiking itineraries!

Some statistics of the covid-19 epidemic in Oman

Country	Population	Total cases per million pop.	Total deaths per million pop.	Active cases per million pop.	Patients in ICU per million pop.	Fatality rate
Oman	5 151 553	22 933	253	1 584	29	1.1%
Switzerland	8 677 011	24 422	317	14 044	50	1.3%
Belgium	11 607 526	42 573	1 112	38 932	126	2.6%
Italy	60 430 066	14 934	680	8 812	44	4.5%
France	65 324 901	26 769	615	24 196	68	2.3%
UK	68 012 457	17 224	719	-	17	4.2%
Germany	83 879 156	7 850	136	2 802	32	1.7%

Sources : www.worldometers.info and www.coronatracker.com.

The state of the pandemic in Oman and its management by the government

As already underlined on the 30th of April by journalist Quentin Müller in an OrientXXI article, "the Sultanate [of Oman] took responsible and quick decisions" to fight the new coronavirus. At the beginning of June, in another article of the same newspaper, researcher Yves Marin points out that, contrary to what could be feared from an absolute monarchy, the new sultan "bet on trust and transparency, and on a crisis management enabling Oman to show itself as a truly modern state", "capable of taking care of its people’s health".
The measures announced along the epidemic progression (closure of shops and schools, isolation of affected neighbourhoods, ban on gatherings, obligation to wear masks, curfew), coherently implemented and completed by a prevention campaign broadcast through social media, helped to avoid a strict lockdown of the population as well as an overwhelming of the health-care system.
 
As elsewhere, this unfortunately did not prevent covid-19 from settling in and progressing. In Oman, the first epidemic peak was reached in late July-early August, with a daily average of 1500 detected cases in mid-July, a maximum of 23000 active cases on the 22nd of the same month and a daily average of 11 deaths in the first week of August.
In order to properly understand the figures, it is worth noting that the Omani government changed his testing policy soon after the epidemic peak (on the 25th of July), the main consequence of which was to significantly reduce the number of daily tests. This explains the end of the correlation between the graphs of the numbers of cases and deaths, the latter decreasing much more slowly.
Following the easing of some restrictions, the epidemic started to rise again in September and early October, with the number of daily cases multiplying by four and the number of daily deaths going from 7 to 11. Between mid-October and early November, the number of cases went down (divided by two) but the daily deaths stay around 10.
 
Despite a high number of detected cases (compared to the population), the number of deaths from coronavirus stays relatively low in Oman. The fatality rate (deaths/detected cases) is indeed only 1.1%, significantly below those of Western Europe.
Even if this does not explain it all, some reasons can be suggested:

• A policy of systematic testing, mandatory in case of symptoms and extended to relatives, implemented since the start of the epidemic (about a month before the number of daily cases started to rise) and until the 24th of July. This was possible partly because the epidemic started later than in Europe.
• An early lockdown, delaying the epidemic development and thus giving time to the Omani government to upgrade its logistics capacity (import and production of medical equipment).
• A generally young population.
• High quality health care and medical facilities well distributed throughout the country.
• Covid-19 testing and treatment free of charge for the whole population - Omanis and expatriates - and in all the medical facilities - public and private (on the 25th of July, tests became payable, except in case of hospitalisation).
• Part of the population abusing the system by regularly getting tested yet not presenting symptoms, logically increasing the number of detected cases (asymptomatic ones). This is one of the reasons that led the Omani government to end the free testing policy on the 25th of July.

The calendar of the epidemic in Oman

• 24th February: First covid-19 cases detected in Oman (travelers returning from Iran).
• 10th March: Creation of a high comity in charge of the covid-19 crisis management.
• Mid-March: Partial lockdown: closing of schools, non-vital shops, mosques and other places of worship, leisure activities, parks. Ban on gatherings. Work from home when possible. Restaurants can serve only take-aways.
• 26th March: The total number of cases crosses the 100-mark.
• Late March: Closing of the airports. Government organises the import of medical supplies.
• 31st March: First death.
• 1st April: Limitation of movements between governorates. In the capital, isolation of the Mutrah neighbourhood, the most affected one.
• Mid-April: Isolation of the capital Muscat. Start of a massive testing campaign. Increase of the production capacity of masks and other medical supplies.
• 16th April: The total number of cases crosses the 1000-mark.
• Late April: Ramadan starts. Reopening of the governorates but Muscat stays isolated.
• 9th May: Stable until then, the number of daily cases is now above 100 and starts to increase significantly.
• Late May: Obligation to wear masks in all public areas. Eid al Fitr, Ramadan ends.
• 29th May: Muscat isolation ends.
• 31st May: The daily case average is now above 500. For the first time, more than 3 deaths in a single day.
• Early June: The Minister of Health steps in and asks people to be more respectful of the barrier measures. Increase of the capacity of the intensive care units. Start of a national covid-19 survey that should last 10 weeks.
• Mid-June: Progressive reopening of the shops (the other measures of the partial lockdown started mid-March are still in effect). The daily case average is now above 1000.
• Early July: Average of 7 daily deaths.
• Mid-July: Covid-19 epidemic peak in Oman: average of 1500 daily cases on 15/07; maximum of 23000 active cases on 22/07. Average of 9 daily deaths.
• 21st July: The government sets the price of PCR tests. They will stop being free of charge, except in case of hospitalisation, on the 25th of July. People presenting symptoms but not in need of hospitalisation will nevertheless be counted as positive.
•  25th July: Start of a 7-pm-to-6-am curfew and a closure of the governorates for 2 weeks. Objective: accelerate the decline of the epidemic and limit the gatherings during the Eid al Adha holidays.
• 26th July: Beginning of a sharp decline of the number of daily cases (intensified by the testing policy change).
• 30th July: Eid al Adha. Start of holidays ending on the 8th of August.
• 31st July-4th August: Covid case data unavailable.
• Early August: Average of 11 daily deaths (peak).
• 8th August: Reopening of the governorates. Reduction of the curfew time (9 pm to 5 am).
• 2nd week of August: Average of 8 daily deaths. The daily cases drop below 300.
• 13th August: Announcement of the reopening of the schools for the 1st of November (instead of at the end of August).
• 15th August: End of the curfew.
• 17th August: Reopening of the souqs. In the hotels, reopening of the swimming pools and the dining rooms (meals had been served in the guest rooms since mid-March). "Tourist" restaurants can also serve on site again.
• 21st August: Covid statistics for weekend days are now announced as a whole on the first day of the week.
• 25th August: All the restaurants can serve on site again but are still prohibited to people less than 12 years old or more than 60. Reopening of the last businesses still closed (hair dressers, beauty salons, etc).
• Late August: Average of 6 daily deaths. The daily cases drop below 200.
• Early September: Average of 7 daily deaths. The daily cases rise back above 200. First rise of the covid numbers since the peak of late July/early August.
• 17th September: The 2nd phase of the serological survey started in June shows that 6% of the population was in contact with the virus.
• Late September: Average of 10 daily deaths. The daily cases come close to 600. For the first time, the number of patients in intensive care units rise above 200.
• 1st October: Reopening of Omani airports. Flights are limited to 2 per week per destination and per company. Only residents and people traveling for business can enter Oman.
• 5th October: Opening of a new 300-bed hospital in the buildings of the old Muscat International Airport. Fully dedicated to coronavirus treatment, it will relieve the hospitals of the country, which will be able to focus on the other patients.
• 8th October: 2nd epidemic peak of covid-19 in Oman: average of 800 daily cases; average of 11 daily deaths (as many as during the 1st peak of early August).
• 11th October: Start of a 8-pm-to-5-am curfew that should last until the 24th of October.
• 18th October: Airports Council International awards a sanitary accreditation to Muscat International Airport, first airport in the Middle East to receive such a certification.
• 25th October: End of the curfew started on the 11th of October.
• Late October: The daily cases drop below 400 and the patients in ICU below 200. The deaths stay high with a daily average of 10-11.
  
• 1st November: Reopening of the schools with blended learning (partly face-to-face, partly online). In the schools, the prevention measures include a reduced number of students per class, teachers and older students wearing masks, temperature checks, etc.
• Early November: The number of patients in ICU drops below 150.
  
• 8th November: Beginning of the 4th and last phase of the national serological survey started in June.