Kuwait Times, Tuesday, Dec 21, 2021 | Jumada Al-Uola 16, 1443
10-day home quarantine for arrivals, 3 if PCR negative
Kuwait:
The Cabinet yesterday imposed a 10-day home quarantine on all arriving
passengers starting from Sunday, Dec 26, as the number of new coronavirus cases
reported in the country increased slightly. At an extraordinary meeting, the
Cabinet decided that passengers arriving in Kuwait must carry a certificate of a
negative PCR test conducted within 48 hours instead of 72.
Arrivals must then undergo home quarantine for 10 days, but the period can be
reduced if a PCR test taken 72 hours after arrival is negative, a Cabinet
statement said. The statement said travel must be restricted only when
“necessary” and people must continue to observe health conditions and
precautionary measures.
The Cabinet statement also said people who had taken the second COVID vaccine
dose more than nine months ago are no longer considered to be immune unless they
take the third booster dose. This means that Kuwait no longer considers vaccines
administered nine months ago as sufficient to protect people against the
coronavirus.
In recent days, health authorities have reported a slight increase in the number
of new coronavirus cases after more than two months of extremely low cases.
Based on statistics provided by the health ministry, between Oct 10 and Dec 10,
Kuwait reported fewer than 40 cases daily and as low as 12 cases on one day,
with the percentage of infection dropping to as low as 0.1 percent. But in the
past five days, the ministry has reported more than 40 cases daily, with 75
cases on Sunday and 81 on Friday. Kuwait has reported only a few deaths in the
past two months.
The Cabinet’s measures come amid worldwide panic over the new COVID-19 Omicron
variant which has hit several European countries, especially the United Kingdom,
where Kuwaitis prefer to spend their holidays. Kuwait has so far reported just
one Omicron case in a European man who arrived from an African nation that has
reported several Omicron cases. The name of the country and the man’s
nationality were not revealed.