Kuwait City: As the health crisis is stabilizing in Kuwait, the Ministry of Health has announced that all non-emergency surgeries in government, private and specialized hospitals can resume as of Sunday, August 29.
In a press statement, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad, said, “allowing the return of operations comes as the improvements in the epidemiological situation and the decreases in COVID-19 patients.”
The Ministry of Health put a hold on all non-emergency surgeries months ago as it was battling a surge in COVID-19 cases.
In the past month, the health situation has severely improved as the number of deaths, cases and hospitalized patients has decreased.
On Sunday, Kuwait recorded 167 COVID-19 cases, the lowest number of cases since April 28, 2020. The percentage of cases compared to the number of swabs conducted has gone down to around 2 per cent, a huge decline compared to few months where the average percentage was around 13 and 14 per cent.
As of Wednesday, there are a total of 260 people admitted to the hospital for COVID-19, a steep decrease from a month ago as there were 1,074 patients hospitalized.
The improvement of the health situation coincides with the rise in vaccinated individuals.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Dr. Basel Al Sabah, said in a Tweet, that they have achieved 70 per cent vaccination. It is not clear whether it means that 70 per cent of the total population is vaccinated or those eligible for the vaccine, meaning anybody above the age of 12.
While Kuwait began its vaccination campaign back on December 24, the country has recently increased the number of daily doses administered by allocating more vaccination centres and reducing the time between both doses.
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it will be reducing the period between doses for those who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Instead of waiting three to four months, the second jab will be given after six weeks from the first dose.
So far, Kuwait is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford vaccine. The Ministry of Health has granted emergency authorization to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but the shipment has yet to arrive in the country.
