KUWAIT: Kuwait's confirmed novel coronavirus cases increased by 695 to 120,927, while four people succumbed to the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 744, the health ministry said yesterday. The ministry had announced earlier that 670 people had recovered from the virus, upping the total number of those to have overcome the disease to 112,110. Kuwait had reported 10 COVID-related deaths on Friday, as well as 812 new cases and 726 recoveries.

There are 123 people receiving intensive care for the virus as of yesterday, out of a total 8,073 patients being hospitalized, official spokesman of the health ministry Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad said. Some 5,194 swab tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, out of a total of 870,754 so far. Dr Sanad reiterated the strict need to abide by health precautions, urging the public to follow social distancing rules as the only way to keep the virus at bay.

Health protocols
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health said that it is using sophisticated safe curative and technical protocols just as recommended by specialized international organizations. The ministry, in a press statement Friday, cited the "low mortality rate in the country due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)" as evidence of "Kuwait's strong health system and effective treatment protocols."

However, it underlined that health guidelines designed to rein in the spread of the virus must be observed, and misinformation pertinent to relevant protocols be shrugged off. The ministry also vehemently lashed out at insistence on underrating the efforts and sacrifices of its medical teams, rebuffing as "divorced from reality" recent allegations that some virus patients were denied access to hospitals. - KUNA