KUWAIT: Kuwait is advising its citizens and residents against travelling abroad at the moment due to the instability of the coronavirus pandemic, and the spread of the virus despite strict measures applied worldwide, the health ministry announced in a statement on Twitter on Friday. Last month, Kuwait’s communications office said that commercial flights at Kuwait International Airport will resume from Aug 1, after being suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, an informed source at the General Directorate for Residency Affairs said issuance of entry visas remains suspended, adding no department or service center can issue any visit or entry visas, according to a report in Al-Anbaa daily. Expats with valid residency permits were planning to return from Aug 1, but some of them have newborns with visit visas.
But the source said those who were issued visit, family, work or newborn visas cannot currently enter the country using those visas because they have expired and there is no mechanism to renew them, and they should wait until visa issuance resumes or a mechanism is set that allows the use of the documents they have.
The source added as for renewing the residency permits of expats who are abroad, the interior ministry’s systems accept renewal applications of their permits provided their passports are valid, for all types of residency articles: Government workers, private sector employees, dependents and those who sponsor themselves.
On Thursday, Italy banned entry to people coming from 13 countries including Kuwait that it said presented an excessive rate of COVID-19 infections. The list compiled by the health ministry comprises Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Kuwait, North Macedonia, Moldova, Oman, Panama, Peru and Dominican Republic.
The ban affects anyone who has stayed in or travelled through these countries in the last 14 days, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a statement. Travellers from all other countries outside the European Union and the Schengen free movement area can come to Italy but must observe 14 days of quarantine on arrival.