By A Saleh

KUWAIT: The Capital health zone director Dr Afrah Al-Sarraf announced allocating the gastrointestinal unit building at Amiri Hospital for cases suspected to be infected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Speaking on sidelines of touring the building used for suspected COVID-19 cases, Sarraf said the building includes 80 beds including 30 for recovery and 10 for intensive care, adding that the building had been provided with all the needed medical, nursing, technical and administrative staff.

Amiri Hospital Manager Dr Ali Al-Alandah said a special service has been provided to categorize hospitalized cases and transfer those suspected to be infected with COVID-19 to the specified building. Alandah added that in case of suspecting a case to be infected with COVID-19, all internationally-approved protocols are applied, and once the infection is confirmed, the case is transferred to the specialized hospital.

Court hearings
The criminal court set a special hearing to be held on Thursday to review four state security cases, including one filed against an Egyptian who had posted a video slandering Kuwaiti people. The second is filed against a Kuwaiti who slandered HH the Amir, the third against a Kuwaiti accused of circulating fake news about digging 50 isolated graves for COVID-19 victims and the fourth filed against a Kuwaiti who had accused Egypt of deliberately transferring the virus to Kuwait by sending thousands of Egyptians to Kuwait without subjecting them to medical tests.

Meanwhile, the court of appeal acquitted defendants involved in a state security case filed against a blogger known as 'Ateej Al-Mesayyan', and fined them by KD 5,000 each for operating unlicensed news accounts. The case goes back to arresting a bedoon - the main suspect - for slandering Kuwait in relation to its handling of the bedoon issue, slandering officials in the central apparatuses for illegal residents and calling to assault the apparatus' chairman Saleh Al-Fadhalah. Notably, the blogger was in contact with other accounts outside the country dedicated to slandering Kuwait.