Ministry keeps watch on home quarantines

KUWAIT CITY, March 4, (Agencies): The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that it has not recorded any new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases over the last 24 hours.

The involved medical team is monitoring two suspected coronavirus cases of Kuwaiti women in their 70s, one in critical condition while the other is stable, the Health Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Dr Butheina Al-Mudhaf said Wednesday.

A suspected coronavirus patient, who had been put under quarantine, has been discharged as there were no symptoms whatsoever, Al-Mudhaf told the daily briefing.

Moreover, all passengers coming to Kuwait could be quarantined, if necessary, the official stressed, noting that the Health Ministry is applying precautionary measures to all passengers coming in from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Georgia, Lebanon and China.

The ministry is doing its utmost to fight a possible coronavirus outbreak through concerted efforts involving all state agencies concerned, the Kuwaiti health official challenged.

China Wednesday reported 119 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 38 deaths on the Chinese mainland. Coronaviruses (CoV) form a large family of viruses that can cause mild colds to severe pneumonia in humans.

Other coronaviruses can cause a variety of infectious diseases in animals. Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and humans. Coronaviruses include the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which first appeared in humans in 2012, and the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), first detected in 2003.

In 2020, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was identified in China that has never been detected in humans before

Second case
A second case, which contracted the coronavirus, was discharged after completing the necessary quarantine period, said a Health Ministry spokesman Wednesday. Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad – the ministry’s spokesman – affirmed that the case today, which followed another discharged yesterday, completed the period of quarantine and new tests showed no trace of COVID- 19. The quarantine for the coronavirus is about 14 days.