Kuwait cases rise by 740
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 10, (Agencies): Kuwait’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 740 to 92,822, with four people having succumbed to the disease raising the death toll to 556 in the past 24 hours, a health ministry official said on Thursday.
The figures include people, who have come into contact with infected individuals, and others whose source of infection is currently being investigated, Spokesman Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA.
In terms of health zones, 181 cases were reported in Hawalli, 154 in Al-Ahmadi, 150 in Farwaniyah, 137 in the Capital and 118 in Jahra, added the official.
There are 90 people currently receiving intensive care for the virus out of a total 9,226 patients being hospitalised.
Some 5,384 swab tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, out of a total of 663,135 so far, added the spokesman.
The official reiterated the strict need to abide by health precautions, urging nationals and expatriates alike that following social distancing rules is the only way to keep the virus at bay.
Earlier, the ministry said 818 people have recovered from the virus, upping the total number of those to have overcome the disease to 83,040.
Meanwhile, a top UN officials warned Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated discrimination and other human rights violations that can fuel conflict, and its indirect consequences are dwarfing the impact of the virus itself in the world’s most fragile countries.
UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock painted a grim picture to the UN Security Council of the global impact of the pandemic that has blanketed the world, with over 26 million confirmed cases of
COVID-19 and more than 860,000 deaths.
Lowcock warned the council that the indirect economic and health effects from the crisis in fragile countries “will be higher poverty, lower life expectancy, more starvation, less education and more child death.”
He said roughly a third of the cases and fatalities are in countries affected by humanitarian or refugee crises, or those facing high levels of vulnerability. But the full extent isn’t known because testing in these fragile countries is very low and in some places many people are reluctant to seek help, perhaps fearing being quarantined or fearing they won’t get useful medical treatment, he said.
“The better news is that it seems possible that the fatality rate from COVID-19 may be lower in these fragile countries than initially feared,” he said, but the indirect impact is greater.
DiCarlo said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ March 23 call for a global cease-fire to deliver life-saving aid during the pandemic had an encouraging initial response, with temporary truces announced from Colombia and Ukraine to the Philippines and Cameroon.
“However, many expired without extensions, resulting in little improvement on the ground,” the undersecretary-general for political and peace-building affairs said.
Still, UN envoys are pursuing Guterres’ call for peace negotiations and cease-fires in conflicttorn Yemen, Libya, Syria and elsewhere, DiCarlo said.
She said another potential driver of instability is people’s perception that “authorities have not addressed the pandemic effectively or have not been transparent about its impact,” adding that “reports of corruption related to COVID-19 responses are accentuating this trend.”