KUWAIT: As Kuwait registered a new record in daily infections yesterday, a government committee tasked with following up the implementation of regulations related to fighting the spread of COVID-19 in Kuwait met to discuss the mechanism of implementing the Cabinet's recent decision to ban indoor social gatherings starting from Sunday. Meanwhile, Kuwait Municipality launched an intensive campaign to inspect commitment to health regulations at shopping malls and markets around the country.

Kuwait reported 2,246 new COVID-19 cases yesterday; a new record in daily cases and the first time the country surpasses the 2,000 daily cases' threshold since the start of the pandemic. The previous record was 1,993 recorded on July 6, 2021. Health authorities also reported one death, seven patients in the ICU, 40 patients in hospital and 8,088 active cases in total. The percentage of daily new cases to new deaths reached 8.8 percent, while the percentage of recovery reached 97.5 percent according to the health ministry's bulletin.

Kuwait Municipality launched yesterday its campaign in various governorates to inspect the implementation of health regulation aimed at controlling the spread of the coronavirus. In the presence of Security Director in Salmiya Command, Major General Abdullah Al-Ali, health teams started their intensive tours to make sure that all shopping malls and shops were committed to health requirements, said Head of Hawally emergency team Ibrahim Al-Sabaan in a press statement.

In Kuwait City, Head of the Violations Removal Department at the Municipality's Capital branch Abdullah Jaber said that field teams in various governorates began intensive tours to ensure the adherence to health requirements to limit the spread of COVID-19. Fixed and mobile teams will be working around the clock in various malls, markets, major commercial complexes, and Souq Mubarakiya, he explained.

The teams will check the compliance of the shops, complexes and parallel markets with the health requirements that were issued previous decisions. These requirements include the non-entry of unvaccinated people to major complexes, temperature measurement, wearing masks, physical distancing, and other requirements to ensure the safety of people, he noted.

He said that checking the vaccination status will be through the Immune or Kuwait Mobile ID applications, to identify the status of vaccination and only allow vaccinated persons, in case of discovering the existence of non-vaccinated cases inside the complex, legal measures will be taken.

On Tuesday, administrative decision 43/2022, issued by Director-General of Kuwait Municipality Ahmed Al-Manfouhi stated that all social events in closed places would be suspended from January 9 to February 28 in implementation of the decisions of the Council of Ministers in this regard. - KUNA