Kuwait: Hotel quarantine likely to signal flight ban end

Cairo: A Kuwaiti decision to apply a mandatory quarantine to all passengers to the country is “likely” to dismantle a flight ban imposed months ago on health grounds, a local newspaper has said.

Starting from February 21, Kuwait will enforce mandatory seven-day hotel quarantine on all passengers arriving in Kuwait at their expense to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Upon the end of the institutional quarantine period, passengers will have to undergo domestic quarantine for seven more days.

Kuwait announced last August a ban on direct flights from dozens of countries, citing concerns over the spread of COVID-19. The move has stranded thousands of expatriates who were on holidays in the affected countries.

Al Qabas newspaper has quoted health sources as saying that the implementation of the institutional quarantine is likely to lead to the cancellation of the flight ban on 35 countries provided that the arriving expatriates have valid residency permits.

Cases on the rise

The sources said that the Kuwaiti Ministry is contacting manufacturers of the vaccines against COVID-19 to secure adequate quantities of the jabs for Kuwait where the coronavirus cases are on the rise.

The ministry targets 10,000 people to receive vaccine per day, according to the sources.

“The number of those receiving the inoculation is considered a few until now. The ministry seeks to inoculate a higher number especially at present amid fears that the most dangerous mutated virus can enter the country,” the source added.

A new batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to arrive in Kuwait next week.