KUWAIT CITY, Dec 28, (Agencies): Kuwait’s Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) added an entry showing a person’s home quarantine status to their vaccination data on “My Mobile ID” (or Hawiyati) app. The new entry will be labelled in mauve, a PACI statement said on Monday. The move, being made in collaboration with the Ministry of Heath, falls in the framework of the relevant Cabinet decision.

During a recent emergency session, the Cabinet decided to subject new arrivals to preventive measures, including having vaccination against coronavirus (Covid-19), carrying a negative PCR test no more than 48 hours before arriving, and going into home quarantine for 10 days or having a new negative PCR after at least 72 hours from arriving. In the face of rising indicators of the epidemiological situation, the Ministry of Health is accelerating steps to enhance community immunity by expanding the third booster dose of the anti-coronavirus vaccine, reports Al-Rai daily. Health sources confirmed “about 37,000 people received the booster dose within 24 hours,” suggesting that “the numbers will rise further with the opening of the door to obtain it without prior appointment, at the Jaber Bridge and the Jleeb Youth Center vaccination centers as of yesterday, in addition to the vaccination center at the Mishref Fairgrounds, which has been already operating since a long time.

Simultaneously, 15 health centers were also inaugurated to provide the booster dose, bringing the total to 51 primary health care centers that provide the third dose, according to the prior dates. The sources reassured that “despite the marked increase in the number of daily infections, it is noticeable that these injuries are of mild severity and require less intensive care,” noting that “the immune status of society represented by the high rate of vaccination and receiving the booster dose plays an important role in confronting the new mutant (omicron) and escape with minimal losses.” The sources stressed it is but natural to increase infections at this stage, and said the effects in Kuwait will not be as severe as some countries with a low rate of immunization, stressing at the same time the need to continue to adhere to the health requirements

The Ministry of Health said Monday that 198 people tested positive for coronavirus (COVID- 19), taking Kuwait’s caseload to 415,349. The recoveries went up by 46 to 411,386, the Ministry’s Spokesman Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad said, noting that the recoveries represent 99.04 percent of the overall infections. The death toll remained unchanged at 2,468, he told KUNA. There are four COVID-19 cases at ICUs, 1,495 others being treated at home and 22 patients at hospital wards. As many as 19,833 swab tests have been conducted which raised the total to 5,882,514, Dr. Al-Sanad added. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said the nation should consider a vaccination mandate for domestic air travel, signaling a potential embrace of an idea the Biden administration has previously eschewed, as COVID- 19 cases spike.