Pandemic said stable … no mutant strain

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KUWAIT CITY, Dec 29, (Agencies): The Cabinet held its weekly session Monday, chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al- Sabah.

After the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh said that Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah briefed the meeting on latest development concerning COVID-19 in Kuwait. The Minister voiced content over the general status of the pandemic in the country, deeming it “stable” based on declining figures in new contamination and fatality rates.

Sheikh Dr Al-Sabah also underlined that the decision to suspend commercial flights and land travelling is still valid until January 1, 2021; with traffic in all ports & border crossings resuming the day after the aforementioned date. He fortunately noted that no mutant COVID-19 strains were detected thus far, as well as not detecting any side effects since the trial launch of vaccination campaign last Thursday.

Kuwait reported 236 new coronavirus infections to raise the total 150,093 in the past 24 hours, as the death toll remains at 932 patients, the health ministry’s Spokesman said Tuesday.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus currently stands at 3,105, with 43 patients of them in intensive care units, according to the ministry spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad.

The ministry had earlier reported that some 248 people had been cured from the virus over the past day, raising the total of those who have overcome the disease to 146,056 So far 2,500 doctors, nurses and pharmacists have received the COVID-19 dose on the second day, in addition to a number of senior officials in the legislative and executive authorities who had launched the trial campaign for the vaccine at the end of last week.

Revealed
Director of the Public Relations Department at the Ministry of Health, Dr Ghada Ibrahim said there is an increasing demand to receive the vaccine to confront the virus, and revealed that the elderly people those who are 80 and above have been added to the first stage which is starting tomorrow, Wednesday, provided that the rest of those on the list complete receiving their dose.

In a statement to Al-Seyassah daily, Ibrahim mentioned the number of information counters inside the vaccination center at the Mishref Fairgrounds will be doubled to (eight counters) to scan the barcode and facilitate vaccination procedures, while at the same time praising the organization and the measures taken in this regard. She indicated the doctors, nurses, laboratory and radiology technicians at the Ministry of Health, along with a number of personnel working in the private medical sector and Kuwait Oil Company Hospital, continued to receive COVID-19 doses on the second day of the launch of the campaign.

Ibrahim denied what was said about the emergence of a new strain of the virus in Kuwait, and confirmed that the preventive health laboratories had not reported the emergence of a new mutation of the virus in the country so far, and that they had tested those arriving from Britain on the fifth and tenth days of their arrival, and did not detect any mutation so far. She reiterated until now there have been no complications or side effects of the vaccination reported by the people who have received the doses since last Thursday.

For its part, the Consultant for Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Head of the Department of Allergy Diseases at Al-Rashid Center for Allergy, Dr.Mona Al-Ahmad, said the vaccination continued at the same pace on the second day of the campaign. In a statement to Al-Seyassah daily, Dr Mona emphasized the vaccination process does not differentiate between a citizen and a resident, and that the nationality is not specified, as doctors and technicians of different nationalities and age groups working in various hospitals in Kuwait rushed to receive the dose on the first and second days of the launch of the campaign.

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