KUWAIT: Kuwait's government is currently reconsidering its decision to ban the entry of expat passengers from 31 countries and accordingly is coordinating with health and civil aviation authorities, Al-Rai daily reported yesterday quoting well-informed sources.
"The ban is being reviewed on a weekly basis," the sources stressed, pointing out that the supreme ministerial committee for combating COVID-19 and the supreme committee for resuming flights at Kuwait airport are currently preparing a comprehensive study to resume flights with various countries - including the 31 on the ban list - according to strict health and legal conditions.
The sources explained that the proposals currently discussed by the government include mandating arriving passengers to a 14-day quarantine period in some hotels allocated as institutional quarantines at their own expense, which is already followed in Jordan and UAE. "This will help implement health conditions in a different way, instead of spending 14 days in a third country outside the 31 banned countries and instead of home quarantine in Kuwait," the sources explained.
"These procedures are necessary for practical reasons, on top of which is allowing employees working in some sectors to return to work, namely teachers who are scheduled to commence work at schools by the beginning of next month," added the sources. They further indicated that the study reviewed the positive sides of allowing resident expats to return while progressing into the phases of resuming normal life, taking into consideration that many expats had already started 14-day quarantines in neighboring countries pending their return to Kuwait after getting PCR certificates from that country.
Upon reoperation of commercial flights on August 1, Kuwait announced that flights to and from the following countries remain suspended until further notice: Armenia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Nepal, Northern Macedonia, Panama, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka and Syria.
In other news, educational sources told Al-Rai that the Ministry of Education's financial sector has allocated payments of KD 3,700 to KD 5,000 per school in the four stages to provide the needed health conditions and purchase sanitizers. The sources added that another payment of KD 1,700 to KD 2,000 would be allocated by the end of March within the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget.