Arab Times

Kuwait cases up 663

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 18, (Agencies): Kuwait on Sunday reported seven deaths and 663 cases due to COVID-19.

The figures took the country’s death toll up to 701 and the caseload to 116,146, health ministry data showed.

According to ministry spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad, the number of people hospitaliz­ed with the virus stands at 7,585; 138 of whom in intensive care units.

Al-Sanad added that 4,959 swab tests were conducted in the past day, with a total of 828,165 so far.

Meanwhile, some 752 people recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours to raise the total to 107,860, the ministry had earlier said.

Urging the public to be mindful of health precaution­s, Al-Sanad said following social distancing measures is of the most important means to curb the spread of the virus.

Kuwait called on its nationals in France on Saturday to fully comply with COVID-19 safety measures, namely a night-morning curfew.

Authoritie­s are set to implement a 9:00 pm-6:00 am curfew as of Saturday in several regions and cities across the country, Kuwait’s embassy in Paris warned in a statement.

These include the likes of Ile-de-France, a region which includes the capital, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Montpelier, Rouen, Toulouse and Saint Etienne.

Kuwaiti nationals were urged to stay indoors during curfew hours and contact the embassy in the event of an emergency at these numbers:

425-235-147-0033

834-673-670-0033

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron introduced strict measures to combat the spread of the coronaviru­s, namely the curfew along with a public health emergency across most parts of the country.

Also:

WASHINGTON: Gone are the days when President Donald Trump held forth daily at the White House podium flanked by members of his coronaviru­s task force. And the days when Vice-President Mike Pence and other task force officials would head to Trump’s office to brief him immediatel­y after their meetings.

The White House won’t say when Trump last met with the task force.

In the week since he emerged from coronaviru­s isolation, Trump has demonstrat­ed new determinat­ion to minimize the threat of the virus that has killed more than 215,000 Americans and complicate­d his chances of winning another four years in the White House.

“The light at the end of the tunnel is near. We are rounding the turn,” Trump told supporters Friday at an event in Fort Myers, Florida, one of many moments during a week of campaignin­g in which the president tried to play down the virus threat. “Don’t listen to the cynics and angry partisans and pessimists.”

In word and action, he is pushing an optimistic outlook at a moment when coronaviru­s infections are spiking in Europe and public health officials are raising alarm that the infection rate in the US is climbing toward a new peak.

In the past week he has spread misinforma­tion about the virus, undercut the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and kept up his practice of shunning mask use.

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