Covid-19 In Kuwait

In Kuwait, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was registered in 24 February, 2020 which grows now into 104,568 registered cases with 96,049 recoveries and 607 deaths in recent 14 days (from 16 Sep- 29 Sep). From the Authorities of Kuwait, the implementation in SOP’s is strictly being imposed on public but still, the cases are emerging in the average rate of 400-500 per day.

The Ministry of Health imposed their first full curfew in 10^th May, 2020 which was ended in 30 May,2020 by implementing partial curfew. The partial curfew designed in five phases. From beginning, the first step was locking state from 6pm-6am, which lasts for 3 weeks. Initially, the state started with the belief of STAY HOME, STAY SAFE theory, with the government suspending work across all government and private sectors except emergency services. In 6 April, 2020 the ended hours of curfew were extended from 4am-6am. The restaurants and other local business were also still in locked phase, where just the eatable shops, private clinics and pharmacies stores were allowed to open.  From the month of Ramadan, 24 May, 2020, the partial curfew extended its stress to 4pm until 8am. In this duration, Government of Kuwait let the special permissions for deliveries from 5pm until 1am (under SOP’s implementations). In 30^Th August, the partial lock down also was removed after completing its fourth phase.

In 18 August, 2020, The Ministry of Health’s Acting Undersecretary, Abdulrahman al-Mutairi announced relief in restriction of opening of local business at a press conference on Thursday evening. According to Health Ministry, all local business including gym, stadiums, barbershops, beauty salons and tailors reopened from 18 August, 2020 with the enforcement of social distancing measures and all SOP’s rules. Government and private sectors are allowed only on 50% opening of workers initially then gradually goes towards full opening.The panel also decided to allow restaurants to re operate 24 hours but, Cafes are still facing banned title for the servicing of Shisha as health precautions. Al-Mutairi forced citing non-compliance with health guidelines and the reasons why Kuwait continues to report 500-600 new cases a day.

Kuwait’s government and its all legal Authorities persists its stress on implementations of SOP’s standards rigorously. A bill is then drafted by Health ministry of Kuwait, allowing levying on the spot fines on people, who fail to comply with health precautions. Health ministry of Kuwait prepared a law that was submitted to the cabinets of ministries to impose some direct penalties for failing to wear masks. The Government also indulges in activating monitoring tools of non-wearing of face masks. For the violators, three months in jail and a maximum fine of 5,000 Dinars is fixed as penalty. CCTV cameras and electronic devices were also fixed in markets, hospitals and others crowded area for the supervision of Kuwaitis regarding SOP’s regulations.

In the pandemic era of covid-19, according to the Ministry of Health of Kuwait there have been 626,041 corona swabs tests performed, that come with average of around 3,000 swabs test per day. Kuwait ranks in 6^th in Middle East, third in the Gulf and Arab world and 38^th in world for the number of swab tests. In the beginning, corona swabs tests performed in government hospitals and at special testing centers which were organized by Kuwait Government itself. Now, swab tests are performing in all government hospitals and in all private medical collection centers. By the availability of swab gadgets now it is performing in homes as well.  Although, these gadgets are expensive and not easily available in all markets, but the scope of demanding the gadgets are increasing gradually.

As per recommendation of Dr. Saud Al Harbi, the Minister of Education, the suspensions on all public schools was held on March 12 and extended the suspension until August 4, 2020. The education authorities of Kuwait did not approved E-Learning in the replacements as they feel that most of the students are not getting access to the E-Learning facilities as, they decided to schedule the 2020-2021 school year for public schools on 1^st December, 2020.  As, for the re-opening of the schools, Al Harbi’s report propose that 2020-2021 year school will reopen in between 4-11 October 2020 for the classes of 8^th -12^th grade, If the Covid-19 Situation does not settle, online classes will be preferred. Those recommendations concerns only for public schools, as private schools conduct e-learning classes throughout the pandemic and ended the school year on schedule.

In the first phase, foreign flights are allowed to enter in Kuwait from 1^ST August 2020. This phase will last for six months. In this phase, the flights bond for Kuwait’s operate at maximum 30% of total capacity. Also, no more than 10,000 travelers can arrive in Kuwait each day, while the numbers of flights are capped at a maximum of 100 each day. The second phase will start from 1^st February 2021. According to this phase, the flight bond for Kuwait operates at maximum 60% of total capacity which includes 20,000 foreign passengers per each day. The number of flights would be 200 per day. Third phase will start from 1^st August, 2021 which will allow flights to operate 100% of its capacity. The passengers also will increased by 100% of their total capacity. The third and final phase will permit 300,000 passengers per each day with 300 flights per a day.

The Kuwait Central Agency, has introduced an interactive app, to track the passengers who entered to Kuwait from foreign borders. This app is named as, Shlonik App (avaliable on Google Play and App Store . This App is purely designed to use in quarantine phase. The Shlonik App features a health Boot, latest health updates, a self check in machine and vital reporting and communication tool with MOH (Medical Officer of Health) team.