Kuwait sees ‘unprecedented’ COVID-19 wave, says minister

Last week, the country's infections hit all-time high amid renewed curbs

Last updated:
Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
A health worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination centre in Kuwait City.
A health worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination centre in Kuwait City.
AFP

Cairo: Kuwait is experiencing a "high, unprecedented” wave of COVID-19 infections, the country’s Health Minister Dr Khalid Al Saeed was quoted as saying.

More than 5,000 infections on a daily average were registered in January, which are more than double the Delta variant cases that were previously recorded, the minister added, according to Al Jarida newspaper.

He voiced confidence that with efforts of health workers and compliance with health precautions, Kuwait will “get out of this crisis”.

Kuwait Monday confirmed 5,176 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall infections to 502,634 cases.

Health authorities also reported one more related death, raising the total fatalities in the country to 2,487.

Last week, daily COVID-19 infections in Kuwait exceeded the 5,000 mark for the first time since the country’s first case of the pandemic was detected nearly two years ago.

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 January 9 until February 28.

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