COVID-19: Kuwait to cut quarantine time
Isolation of infected vaccinated people to be reduced to 7 days
Cairo: Kuwait plans to reduce periods of medical isolation for people infected with COVID-19 and those coming in contact with the patient, a local newspaper has said.
As part of reviewing COVID-19 treatment protocols, the Kuwaiti health authorities will reduce the quarantine duration to seven days for the infected people who are fully vaccinated and received the second jab less than nine months ago, and 10 days for the unvaccinated, Al Rai added, quoting what it termed as well-informed sources.
Seven-day quarantine will be enforced for the vaccinated people who have come in touch with the infected ones, after which they will conduct a swab before ending the isolation. The unvaccinated person, who has been in contact with a patient, will have to go into 14-day quarantine according to the new arrangement, the paper added.
“Reducing the quarantine period is a positive change in health protocols adopted in Kuwait and is in line with the approved world standards,” the sources said without disclosing when the reported system could go into effect.
Kuwait last week registered its highest daily COVID-19 infection rate since the first case was detected in the country in March 2020.
As part of new precautions announced by the government to curtail the spread of the virus, all arrivals in Kuwait are now required to present a negative PCR conducted 72 hours before arrival.
The Kuwaiti government has also decided to temporarily halt all social events held at indoor places starting from today, January 9, until February 28.
The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported Saturday 2,820 more COVID-19 cases and two related deaths in the past 24 hours. The latest figures have raised the country’s overall infections to 430,920 and deaths to 2,471.