MoH reports over 16,500 COVID cases since Jan 1

MoH reports over 16,500 COVID cases since Jan 1

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The ministry of health yesterday reported 2,999 new coronavirus cases, the highest number ever on a single day since the outbreak of the pandemic. This number is greatly larger than the number of cases reported in the three months between Sept 15 and Dec 15, during which only around 2,500 cases were reported, according to official figures. This shows the intensity of the disease in the current wave.

As many as 16,800 new cases were reported by ministry in the first nine days of January, with over 20,000 new cases reported since the middle of December, around 10 times the rate reported in the previous three months. The ministry yesterday urged people to shun travel plans except in urgent cases and called on people arriving from abroad to comply with home quarantine procedures.

The ministry also called on the public in a statement to comply with using facemasks to cover mouth and nose and not mingle with people when experiencing symptoms like coughing and sneezing. The Cabinet is expected to discuss today recommendations made by the coronavirus ministerial emergency committee, which met on Thursday. The nature of the recommendations has not yet been made public.

The ministry has also urged