COVID-19: Alarm as ICU occupancy sharply rises in Kuwait
Number of ICU patients increased from 159 to 202 in one week
Kuwait City: After a relatively stable COVID-19 situation for a month in Kuwait, the country has seen a steep increase in patients entering the intensive care. There’s alarm as in the past week, the number of ICU patients jumped from 159 to 202. After a spike on May 10, where there were 210 patients in the ICU, the number of patients started to decrease until a month ago, when hospitals began reporting an increase.
In the past few weeks, Kuwait also reported a spike in COVID-19 cases; 1,709 cases were recorded on June 10, the highest one-day count since the beginning of March.
In addition, on Saturday, the Ministry of Health announced it had recorded 11 COVID-19 related deaths. The death toll is the highest number recorded since May 6.
Vaccine protection
Clarifying the importance of being vaccinated, Dr. Khaled Al Saeed, a member of the COVID-19 vaccination committee, said the jab protects against hospitalisation and death.
He explained that 99.1 per cent of people in Kuwait who passed away due to COVID-19 were not vaccinated. In addition, 90.5 per cent of all COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital were not vaccinated and 89.4 per cent of patients in intensive care were unvaccinated.
Dr. Khaled pointed to a study published by Public Health of England that indicated both vaccines being administered in Kuwait provide significant protection against hospitalisation and protect against different variants. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine provides 92 per cent protection and the Pfizer-BioNTech provides 94 per cent.
Delta variant
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday it had detected a number of cases of the Delta variant in Kuwait.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad, said during Tuesday’s press conference that all citizens and residents should continue adhering to health measures, especially with the discovery of the new variant, and not panic.