MENA | Coronavirus tracker for the GCC – April update

The GCC provides an interesting case study of how the vaccine programmes
impact upon the response of countries to rising new cases of Covid-19. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar have all seen significantly higher new daily
cases of Covid-19 over the past month. This has resulted in tightening of
lockdown restrictions in Oman and Qatar and maintenance of tight restrictions in Kuwait to quell the spread of the virus and ease pressure on health services.

What you will learn from this report:

• On the other hand, Bahrain, which has one of the world’s most rapid vaccine roll-outs, has actually eased lockdown conditions despite a steep rise in new daily cases.
• This mirrors the UAE, where new daily cases were brought down
  despite continued relatively easy lockdown restrictions. This could also feed into a difference in the speed with which economies in the GCC recover over the summer months.
• This MENA Weekly updates our Coronavirus tracker for the GCC, which draws on non-traditional data sources such as Google location data and STR hotel occupancy data, plus high-frequency data such as PMIs, commodity prices and financial market numbers.