Kuwait has banned all types of visas for all nationalities looking to enter the country as officials look to contain the current coronavirus outbreak.
Kuwait has confirmed a new case of coronavirus infection, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the disease in the country to 46, a health ministry official told a media conference on Sunday.
The majority of the cases, including the one identified in the past 24 hours, are either people who had travelled to Iran or been in contact with people who were there, she said.
The country’s Ministry of Health has also announced stringent new measures to examine all passengers arriving from Egypt and Syria for the virus.
Kuwait has already cut all transport links to Iran and several other countries, while GCC citizens can no longer use their respective IDs to travel between Gulf countries and must have passports.
Undersecretary of the ministry Dr. Mustafa Reda told state news agency KUNA that passengers will subject to medical check-up and their body temperatures will be measured before boarding their Kuwait-bound planes and upon their arrival.
Those with a high body temperature will not be allowed to board the plane until they undertake a PCR test and get a negative result on the same day of the travel and their temperatures return back to normal level, he said.
Passengers who do not suffer from fever will have to fill out a medical form and their body temperature will be gauged on the plane gate upon arriving at the Kuwait International Airport. If their temperatures are normal, they will will be provided with all relevant instructions and the ministry will follow up their health for 14 days, he stated.
Passengers who show high body temperatures will be taken to a quarantine centre to take a sample and conduct the coronavirus test – if the result is negative, they will be quarantined at home for 14 days. If they tested positive, they will be moved to the hospital allocated for treating coronavirus cases.
