MUSCAT: The Supreme Committee members are currently meeting the media at the Ministry of Health headquarters.

The press meet is headed by His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Al Saidi. Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower is also attending the meeting.

Catch all the updates of the press meet below:

1. Minister of Health: 23 confirmed cases are in hospitals, 7 in intensive care, and 95 unconfirmed cases.
2. Minister of Health: Of the 1019 cases, 636 are expats and 384 are Omanis.
3. Minister of Health: 12 cases reported in Jalan Bu Ali that is why we have isolated the area this morning.
4. Minister of Health: Number of cases still on the rise. We must continue the precautionary measures.
5. President of Central Bank of Oman: There are impacts on the banking sector and this sector still bears the burden. The banks ’capital, financing reserves are good.
6. Minister of Health: Two expatriates who died are less than 50 years of age.
7. Minister of Manpower: With regard to wages of employees, we succeeded in negotiating with some companies not to deduct the salaries.
8. Minister of Health: Companies affected with Covid-19 crisis can reduce salaries of private sector employees. 
9. Minister of Manpower: Companies affected by Covid-19 must show proof before deducing salaries of workers.
10. Minister of Manpower: Salaries deducted must be returned to the employees soon.
11. Minister of Health: 184 cases recorded in wilayat of Muttrah only.
12. Minister of Health: Numbers will rise end of this month.
13. Minister of Health: Virus will peak between April 20 to 30.
14. Central Bank of Oman President: We do not agree with delaying loan payments of everyone. Banks have been told to look into the cases of all those affected before implementation.
15. Minister of Health: Frequent cases of infection with the virus are not clear. One of the recovering cases in the Sultanate was examined after 28 days and it was found that he was still a carrier of the virus.
16. Minister of Health: In Oman, plasma therapy was tried and it was successful. We thank all those who donated their blood for treatment.
17. Minister of Manpower: There is a coordination between concerned authorities to negotiate with countries on the expulsion of migrant workers and once the conscious has been reached, measures will be taken to deport them.
18. Minister of Health: The cost of treatment is high, reaches OMR 1,000 riyals per day for intensive care. For laboratory tests, it depends on the type of solution used and ranges between OMR 20 – OMR 50 , and the additional cost depends on medical devices and staff.
19. Minister of Manpower: The construction sector is still operating because it includes 40% of the number of workers in the private sector, and we are regularly checking if they are following to the precautionary measures to limit the spread of the virus.
20. Minister of Manpower: Any amount that was earlier deducted before the Supreme Committee’s decision must be returned to both Omanis and resident workers.
21. Minister of Health: We expect to reach a peak during the last week of this month, and it is expected that we will record about 500 injuries daily, 150 of which require intensive care.
22. Minister of Health: There are no accurate predictions to determine the number of cases that may affect any country, however ours are based on the experiences of the Republic of China and some regions in Italy.