KUWAIT: Students undergo the COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test ahead of their graduation exams at a school in Kuwait City yesterday. - Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Kuwait's Ministry of Health confirmed yesterday there was a daily inventory of COVID-19 vaccines being received and actually used, therefore the whole quantity was accounted for. The Ministry was reacting to social media reports suggesting coronavirus vaccines had been smuggled from Kuwait to an Arab country. It called for verifying the reports and get the information from the official sources.

Meanwhile, the health ministry began yesterday carrying out COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Tests for non-vaccinated students ahead of the grade 12 final exams. The end-of-year paper graduation tests for high school students in public and Arabic private schools are set to start on Wednesday under strict health precautionary measures.

In the meantime, health ministry field workers are set to begin this week offering COVID-19 vaccines to workers at Mubarakiya and Safat markets in Kuwait City, according to local reports. In another note, Al-Qabas Arabic daily reported yesterday quoting health ministry sources that around 93 percent of COVID-19 patients in hospitals in Kuwait were not vaccinated against the disease.

Kuwait had reported on Saturday 1,331 new COVID-19 infections in addition to seven deaths, taking the total up to 315,900 and 1,794 respectively. The figures were slightly up from 1,280 infections on Friday and down from 1,443 on Thursday, whereas Kuwait had reported four deaths on each of Friday and Thursday. Meanwhile, the health ministry registered 1,310 recoveries on Saturday, compared to 156 on Friday and 1,087 on Thursday, raising the total to 299,795.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus currently stood at 14,311 as of Saturday; up from 14,297 on Friday, with 149 of them in intensive care units; down from 151 a day before. The number of patients had stood at 14,177 on Thursday, including 146 in ICUs. - KUNA