Younger pupils in Oman's primary schools will return to online learning next week as cases of Covid-19 in children rise.
Both cases and hospital admissions have grown due to community spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the Sultanate, the supreme committee in charge of Covid-19 measures said on Wednesday.
“Data from primary healthcare centres indicate the spread of respiratory infections in all governorates, especially in the category of children from 5 to 12 years old, which indicates a wide and rapid spread of respiratory infections in general, including the Covid-19 virus”, the committee said.
Children in first to fourth grades, generally aged between 5 and 10 years old, will begin online learning on January 16.
Oman registered 718 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. Cases of the disease have risen sharply since the end of 2022, driven by the Omicron variant, authorities say.
Eighteen people were admitted to hospital with the disease, bringing the total to 59, and six people were in intensive care on Wednesday.
The Supreme Committee also reiterated its call for people to stick to Covid-19 precautionary measures, and for businesses and other places still allowed to operate to ensure they provide a safe environment and do not exceed 50 per cent capacity.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
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