Corona spike despite lockdown
‘Authority agrees to extend closing date for receiving offers’
KUWAIT CITY, May 14, (Agencies): The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health has announced 947 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 11,975, while six deaths were reported as well, bringing the fatalities’ toll up to 88.
In the daily press briefing, Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad said that 175 patients were in intensive care, 95 of them are in critical condition.
Earlier today, the Ministry announced the recovery of patients at 188, bringing the total to 3,451 recoveries.
MoH eyes new mechanism
Undersecretary of Ministry of Health Dr. Mustafa Redha recently issued a circular to all sectors of the ministry concerning the need to set up a mechanism for the resumption of work in government agencies in light of the COVID-19 crisis, reports Aljarida daily.
He asked all the assistant undersecretaries of the ministry and directors of health zones to provide him with the list of departments and administrations required to resume operations and the numbers of employees in these departments and administrations no later than the end of this week, stressing that this issue is to be considered important and urgent.
Last week, Undersecretary of Civil Service Commission (CSC) Bader Al-Hamad sent a letter to Ministry of Health, highlighting the need to set up a mechanism for the resumption of work in government agencies, and determining proposals concerning the official working hours with the aim of ensuring the interests of citizens and residents are not disrupted in light of the COVID-19 crisis.
KUWAIT CITY, May 14: Ministry of Electricity and Water had previously requested relevant authorities in charge of the projects of the five labor cities affiliated with Kuwait Municipality to grant a grace period of four years so that it can provide electricity to the sites identified by the municipality, reports Al-Rai daily quoting informed sources from the ministry.
In a press statement, the sources explained that the process of connecting electricity to the five labor cities requires studies as well as necessary projects for determining the paths for extending electrical cables or overhead lines, and constructing major transformer stations, and providing electrical energy to operate these sites. The projects also need to expedite the process of installing and operating electricity in these cities. This depends on the government’s desire to establish it, which means the ministry can reduce the period of delivering electricity to less than four years if the government has a serious desire to implement and adhere to the time limit for it.
On the other hand, wellinformed sources from the Public Private Partnership Projects Authority drew attention to the continuation of the commission in the procedures for implementing the labor cities project in Jahra Governorate.
They said the authority had agreed a while ago to extend the closing date for receiving company offers due to the coronavirus crisis.
The sources explained that there was no discussion or intention in the past to launch the five cities projects through the Partnership Projects Authority until the issue went to ‘Ministry of Public Works. The process of taking approvals from the concerned authorities to implement the projects proposed by the authority took more than three years.
KUWAIT CITY, May 14: Contrary to previous expectations, official statistical data revealed that the volume of Kuwaiti spending on foreign tourism in 2019 decreased by 7.35 percent, as the value of their spending on trips abroad recorded 3.732 billion dinars (about 12 billion dollars) last year, compared to 4 billion dinars (about $ 13 billion) in 2018, reports Al-Seyassah daily.
According to data provided by the Central Bank of Kuwait, which was reported by Al-Mubasher website, the services account deficit in the previous year was 5.1 billion dinars compared to 7.4 billion dinars in 2018, indicating a decline of 31.1 percent of the net value of transactions with the outside world related to services between residents and non-residents. It also includes transportation, travel, communications, construction and other services, in addition to government services and goods.
It is expected that the volume of Kuwaiti spending on tourism during the current year will witness a remarkable decline, coinciding with the significant decline in the income of global tourism as a whole due to the disruption of air traffic, closure of economies and adoption of social distancing measures to limit the spread of Corona virus.
Kuwaitis spending on foreign tourism in ’19 down by 7.35pc