COVID-19: Total lockdown ruled out in Kuwait as health situation stabilizes

Kuwait City: The head of the COVID-19 Supreme Advisory Committee at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Khalid Al Jarallah, announced that the chances of implementing a total lockdown is ruled out, local media reported.

He added that there is a slight decrease in positive COVID-19 cases, as a result of the partial curfew which was implemented since March 7.

In a Tweet, Al Jarallah revealed that currently 65 per cent of COVID-19 patients that are hospitalized or are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are expats. As of Saturday, there are 220 patients undergoing treatment in the ICU.

The average percentage of positive cases to number of tests conducted in the past month was around 15 per cent, similar to the month before.

In addition, throughout April Kuwait registered 250 COVID-19 related deaths, the highest month since the pandemic began.

Vaccine milestone

Al Jarallah pointed out that achieving vaccination immunization is one of the ways to improve the health situation.

Last week, Kuwait reached a milestone after the Ministry of Health reported that more than one million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Kuwait has currently vaccinated around 27 per cent of its population.