KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah headed on Monday the Cabinet's extraordinary session at Dar Salwa. "I can only at the beginning of this meeting express my sincere thanks and appreciations to my brother the Prime Minister, and all ministers, for their kind suggestion, out of concerns, that I should leave the country due to the coronavirus outbreak," HH the Amir said.

"I appreciate all this, and this makes me feel only more loyal to you all, as your elder brother, but thank Allah Almighty we now are all together; I can only thank my brother, the Prime Minister, the ministers for their efforts," he said.

"They said Kuwait is the first country that preceded others in the face of this dangerous disease, the novel coronavirus," HH the Amir noted, adding "the second thing I would like to say is a big thank you to my brother Marzouq Al-Ghanem, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister, for their cooperation and building a bridge between the two branches so that all members of parliament become aware of all measures and facts, and the reality on the ground during this crisis."

HH the Amir added thank Allah Almighty this idea succeeded, due to their cooperation and mutual support between the two branches, "which reached the result that you are seeing now". "I hope that this will continue until the end of this crisis. I am also pleased to thank each one of you ministers - females and males - sitting with their colleagues, for a great job and effort during this time," the Amir added.

"To the Minister of Health, with all of his orders, which comes in the interest of citizens' health and security, I thank him for his exerted efforts," he said, adding that "not one negative comment came during his work, which is a testament of acceptance by the Kuwaiti people to his work during this crisis.

The ministry of education said Monday that resident teachers and ministry staff can travel back to their respective countries without needing a leave permit. According to the ministry's Twitter account, the decision was made in coordination with the ministry of interior. Regarding resident teachers and staff whose residency visas will expire while abroad, the ministry said efforts will be coordinated with Kuwaiti diplomatic missions to allow them to travel back to Kuwait.

The interior ministry said that nine expatriates were arrested in Farwaniya on Monday evening for violating the partial curfew. The detainees were referred to the deportation department to complete the procedures of their deportation, the ministry's public relations and security media department said in a statement posted on its website. The security services tolerate no breach of the rules of the partial nationwide curfew, it stressed.

Egyptian Ambassador to Kuwait Tareq Al-Qouni said that upon coordination between EgyptAir and the Kuwaiti authorities, six flights will operate from Kuwait to Cairo from today until March 30 to fly out Egyptians who had applied to the Egyptian consulate beforehand, including visit visa holders, those who had annulled residency visas pending departure and urgent humanitarian cases.

Qouni urged Egyptians who are contacted by the consulate to check with the nearest Egypt Air travel agent to issue their tickets. Meanwhile, the Directorate General for Civil Aviation announced that based on a request from the Egyptian consulate in Kuwait, a daily EgyptAir flight will depart from Kuwait International Airport to Cairo International Airport at 4 pm from March 25 to 30.

Kuwait confirmed two new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours. Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad said that the two cases are of Filipino and Indian residents who were in contact with patients that arrived from the UK, bringing the number of infections in the country to 191 cases. Sanad revealed that out of the 191 cases, 39 of them have recovered and 152 are still receiving treatment. He indicated five cases are still in the ICU, while 708 individuals have completed the quarantine period. - Agencies