COVID-19: 800 expats exempted from Kuwait flight ban

Cairo: Kuwait has agreed on the return of around 800 expatriates from countries from which flights are banned on health grounds, but they will be placed under institutional quarantine, Al Rai newspaper reported today.

The government’s Supreme Committee for Coronavirus Emergency has approved exempting those 800 from the flight ban, but they will be quarantined at their expense or that of their employers, the paper added, citing unidentified sources.

There is another group of 600 expatriates whose return has yet to be approved.

The exempted categories include doctors, judges and experts in maintenance at the Kuwaiti ministries of oil and electricity.

However, applying institutional quarantine to other expatriates from the banned countries is ruled out.

“Allowing this means there is no need of the ban list, a matter that does not suit the current situation where some of those countries are experiencing an increase in infection rates or an unstable epidemiological scene in others,” a source said.

“Health factors are still the prime criterion, given the rise in the number of infections due to non-compliance with preventive measures,” the source added.

Last month, Kuwait announced banning entry of passengers from 32 “high-risk” countries until further notice on instructions from Kuwaiti health authorities due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

The ban includes India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Philippines that have large communities of expatriates in Kuwait.