Three command groups to lead medical services during FIFA 2022

“We have more or less a similar national health strategy for the upcoming FIFA World Cup as in the case of Covid-19 strategy. There will be three tactical command groups to look after the organisation of the whole medical services during the event,” disclosed Dr Muna al-Maslamani, medical director, Communicable Disease Centre, Hamad Medical Corporation.Dr al-Maslamani was speaking at the concluding plenary session of the Qatar Health 2022 and 2nd Qatar Public Health virtual conference on the topic ‘What is the future for mass gatherings, in the post-vaccine world?’“Of the three groups, one will be looking at the acute service with the hospitalisation and isolation facility: another one will provide the community with quarantine facility as well as track and trace services. The final group will look into the public health information. Moreover, there will be a spokesperson related to FIFA World Cup,” explained Dr al-Maslamani.The other speakers at the panel discussion were Dr Dalia Samouri, WHO; Prof Pierre Carli, France and Dr Kristina Angelo, CDC, Atlanta and the session was moderated by Dr Roberto Bertollini from the Ministry of Public Health.Dr al-Maslamani also spoke about the lessons learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic and how it showed the importance of a proactive approach applied by Qatar during the pandemic.“We started the preparation even before the first case was reported in Qatar.We made all the preparation and in parallel, we also had an emergency plan preparation. Because of this, we got a prompt and efficient response when the crisis hit us. We had a central health command centre for smooth conduct of the process and got it connected with all the ministries and other stakeholders. The same will play an important role during the World Cup as well,” noted the official.Dr Samouri highlighted the need for aligned message and trust for the conduct of mega events. “We need to build trust and provide the right information to counter rumours. We need to build trust and the right message has to go to the public. Therefore we need to educate the public to get the right message from the right source. This will help to deliver the right message at the right time,” said Dr Samouri.She also noted that after the event, there should be a proper understanding of the whole process that has taken place. “We need to understand if we were acting in the right way; whether we were planning the interventions in the right way or did we have the right system. We have a lot of tools that can be used to review the response and review how the mass gathering has taken place. This will help generate the right legacy for the country,” she highlighted.According to Prof Carli, responses from different corners have to be synchronised and right message must be formed. “Medical coordination is an important point for any mass gathering. Communication is another one. There should be more interconnection between communication , services and the medical arrangements. We need to continue to share information among all stakeholders to create a core content of knowledge. It is extremely important to make mass gatherings efficient,” he said.Meanwhile, Dr Angelo focused on the travellers and the need to take them into spotlight as they are the people more affected by pandemics at the outset. “It is very important that we have public health emergency department for the mass gathering programme. Systematic surveillance is very important to contain the spread of any pandemic especially during any mega event. Economic data and the airline data is also crucial to identify new or emerging top destinations and to know more about the specifics of the places,” she added.