Weekend virus surge puts total at 479
❑ CARDIAC DEATH AWAITS CORONAVIRUS DETERMINATION ❑ SANITIZATION CAMPAIGN ON First death confirmed
KUWAIT CITY, April 4, (Agencies): The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced Saturday the first death case of novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, while 62 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
This brings the country’s tally of confirmed virus cases up to 479, the ministry’s spokesman Dr Abdullah AlSanad told KUNA.
Earlier in the day, Kuwaiti Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah announced the recovery of 11 people from the novel coronavirus, raising the country’s total recoveries to 93.
The Ministry of Health announced earlier on Friday registering up to 75 cases of infection with coronavirus over the past 24 hours and put total number of contaminations with the pandemic so far at 417.
Five of the persons who tested positive for contracting the disease came back to Kuwait from the United Kingdom as part of the latest repatriates’ evacuation, said Al-Sanad. A Kuwaiti female citizen, who was repatriated from Iran, also tested positive. Another case, an Iraqi woman who resides in Kuwait, is also related to travel to Iraq. Number of those who mingled with infected persons reached 36, including three Kuwaiti citizens who were in close contact with a patient who had travelled to the UK and a single national who had interacted with a person under examination for contamination, Dr Al-Sanad added.
The tally includes 26 cases of Indian residents who mingled with a person under examination for infection, three residents from Bangladesh and three Egyptians who were in an identical condition.
Moreover, the MoH has registered 23 cases under examination for contamination: Two Kuwaitis, five Egyptians, 16 Indians, seven from Bangladesh, a Filipino and a Nepalese. Dr Al-Sanad renewed the call upon nationals and residents to heed decisions released by the Cabinet, recommendations and resolutions of the MoH and other state departments, aimed at stemming spread of the virus.
“We also recommend to regularly take necessary precautions against the disease, follow up on official (social media) accounts on related developments,” he concluded.
Director of Al-Amiri Hospital Dr Ali Alalanda said on Friday postmortem examination of a deceased Indian, who died on Thursday, revealed that he had been infected with coronavirus.
However, linking his death to the coronavirus infection was to be determined by the World Health Organization, Dr Alalanda said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
The 60-year-old resident, whose corpse was brought to the hospital earlier Friday, had died due to a cardiac arrest, but the medical examination and a swab test, currently conducted in line with a recommendation by WHO, showed that he was infected with the coronavirus, Dr Alalanda said.
The deceased neither had symptoms of the contagious disease nor visited any hospital recently, he said.
Instantly after registering this case, concerned personnel scrambled to take measures and examine persons who had been in contacted with the deceased. They also “completed quarantine of a building where he lived,” the hospital director added.
This building had been quarantined due to discovering suspected coronavirus cases there.
Dr Alalanda has affirmed the Ministry of Health transparency policy with respect of the disease, reiterating that the public will be informed about any fresh development concerning the pandemic.
Pay wages of employees
Private schools, closed as a preventive measure to prevent spread of coronavirus among students and teachers, should pay salaries of their workers, Ministry of Education said Thursday.
The ministry said Law No. 6 of 2010 gave the ministry authority to take legal, financial and administrative measures if private schools failed to pay wages of their employees.
The ministry’s private education sector would take legal action against any school failing to pay wages of their employees, it said.
Campaign launched
Kuwait Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Waleed Al-Jassem announced the biggest sanitization campaign in the Capital Governorate in the framework of the efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“The campaign kick-started at AlMubarakiyah marketplace and will cover all areas of the Capital Governorate, following similar works in Al-Farwaniyah Governorate,” Al-Jassem told reporters on Friday.
He added that this campaign would proceed to other Governorates.
Kuwait Municipality spares no effort in protecting the public health, he affirmed, urging the citizens and expatriates in continue contributing to the fight against the pandemic through staying at home and social distancing.
Vegetable market
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) on Saturday decided to allocate the “vegetable market” (popular local vegetable area) in providing and selling their products to cooperative societies and the supermarkets only, in order to avoid gatherings.
In a statement, the ministry said that according to the instructions by the Cabinet and health authorities, namely ministerial Resolution No. 87 of 2020 was issued, which stipulates in its second article that the priority of selling should be in order (cooperative societies – markets – restaurants – hotels – outlets selling agricultural products).
It noted that the ministerial decision came on the instructions of the Ministry of Health that the market should be closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The third article indicated that the decision is effective from the date of its issuance until further notice, it added.
Kuwait Ministry of Defense completed and handed over Friday Hall V in the International Fairs Ground to the Ministry of Health to be used as quarantine.
The MoD personnel have been working round-the-clock to prepare the quarantine to meet requirements put in place by the MoH which is leading the country’s efforts to fighting coronavirus, MoD Acting Undersecretary Sheikh Fahad Jaber Al-Sabah said in a statement.
He said the ministry succeeded in finishing the 259-room quarantine in Hall V in three days.
Work is underway to prepare Hall VI to be used as quarantine as well.
Kuwait largest contributor
World Health Organization’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday Kuwait was the largest contributor to WHO’s coronavirus combat operations.
Kuwait contributed $60 million to WHO’s respond programs against coronavirus which claimed lives of over 50,000 and affecte some a million others, Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.
He said restrictions imposed by governments worldwide to prevent spread of coronavirus have economic and social ramifications, but they also curb the spread and left a great impact on peoples.
WHO is supporting calls by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to protect communities with low income, said Ghebreyesus, and saving lives of people through application of preventive measures should be coupled with provision of food and basic needs.
He said governments should comply with WHO’s coronavirus guidelines with regards to testing, quarantining and follow up of cases.
Lifting curfew at an early time, he warned, would jeopardize communities because they could face a second wave thus an increase in infections.
Ghebreyesus called on countries to boost of health systems and alleviate financial difficulties of citizens.
Auto stores shuttered
Kuwait Municipality Director General Mohammad Al-Manfouhi on Friday ordered closing all stores for selling and repairing and maintaining auto spare parts as part of precautions against the novel coronavirus.
Al-Manfouhi said in a statement roads’ back-up services for motorists and stores for trading in spare parts can pursue work via electronic website and telephone services.
However, stores bonded with repair and maintain contracts for government departments’ vehicles and cars can proceed work but cannot resume regular transactions for the public.
The spotlight of the coronavirus crisis in Kuwait is currently focused on the Indian community in the country, after the number of Indian coronavirus victims increased to 52 in the last four days including 24 cases that were detected within one day, reports Al-Qabas daily.
This matter has raised concerns among the authorities and fears among the public about the reasons behind such an increase.
The Indian community is the biggest expatriate community in Kuwait with a total of 1,058,000 members, constituting 22 percent of the population of Kuwait.
According to statistics issued by Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), there are more than 832,000 Indians working in the country out of which 42 percent or 352,584 are domestic workers. The Indian domestic workers in Kuwait constitute 47.5 percent of the total number of domestic workers in the country.
In the public sector, 6.1 percent of the expatriate workers are Indians, which is a total of 28,236 workers, while there are 549,714 Indians working in the private sector, and 629 In
dian families.
Meanwhile, sources said high number of Indian expatriates in Kuwait live in Farwaniya and Ahmadi Governorates, especially in areas such as Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Mahboula.
In addition, the daily reported that increase in coronavirus infections among Indians from unknown sources increase the chance of area-based lockdown.