Kuwait public works ministry builds 5,000-bed quarantine
Health Minister confirms efforts to ease restrictions
Yesterday, Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah posted a thank you message on his official Twitter account: “To all my colleagues on the front lines. You have made incredible sacrifices, leaving your families, working tirelessly, and showing us the true meaning of resilience and sacrifice. You are combating this pandemic, to give life to our collective health and prosperity. Thank you.”
The minister posted his comments in Arabic, English and Hindi - acknowledging the diversity of the health professional community in Kuwait and rightly thanking them all for their incredible hard work, sacrifice and dedication. He also demonstrated, through the inclusion of English and Hindi languages the importance of an integrated (rather than segregated response) to this pandemic.
Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah is right. We are all in this together and we will survive this as a collective or not at all. But there remain some problems with Kuwait’s approach to dealing with this crisis. For instance, the segregation of COVID patients based on nationality - sending Kuwaiti patients to Jaber Hospital directly but expats must go to their local hospital first and then via a COVID ward either be sent to Jaber (if a child, female or high risk) or to Mishref field hospital (if male, low risk).
The lockdowns of Jleeb and Mahboula have also done little or nothing to slow the spread of the virus in the community but have created innumerable hardships for the people living in those areas. From food shortages and insecurity to lack of inability to earn enough money to live for many, the lockdowns further segregate the community - though on the basis of location rather than nationality.
The only division that should be driving health policy decisions at this stage is the one between healthy and unhealthy people. As Sheikh Dr Basel has so rightly acknowledged, our collective health and prosperity is in our collective hands.
KUWAIT: Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Dr Rana Al-Fares announced Saturday delivering a section of the Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium’s quarantine to the Ministry of Health. The initiative was taken to back up efforts by the State and health authorities after increase of numbers of infections with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), said the minister in a statement. Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah attended the handover event. She praised Kuwait Red Crescent Society for its contribution to building the quarantine and lauded “frontline” volunteers partaking in the fight against the contagion. Ismail Al-Failakawi, the ministry undersecretary, said in a statement the quarantine was built in three weeks. The complex includes a field medical center, dormitories for medics and nurses, 5,000 beds, intensive care units and pharmacies. He explained that the delivered section included 1,250 beds, adding that the other units would be handed over later. Easing restrictions In the meantime, Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah said that efforts were going on to cut restrictions as much as possible, adding that work resumption is unlikely after Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Speaking to reporters while launching the new quarantine center, the minister said that the first phase of the medical facility, involving 1,250 beds and a field hospital, had been completed, adding that the whole quarantine center would go into service by the end of May. Furthermore, another 250bed fully equipped medical facility will be opened at Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref, the health minister pointed out. However, he rebuffed recent local press reports on increasing COVID-19 infections among medics as “untrue”, while urging people to follow relevant health guidelines, chiefly washing hands frequently, not touching face, maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks.
No outbreak among medics