By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The National Assembly office yesterday decided to postpone its regular session scheduled for today until next week after at least five MPs tested COVID-19 positive, the Assembly speaker said. Marzouq Al-Ghanem told reporters that "more than five MPs have tested positive" for coronavirus and the health ministry will carry out tests on the remaining lawmakers and Assembly staff who came in contact with the infected MPs.

Ghanem did not disclose the names of the infected MPs, but three of them - Adel Al-Damkhi, Yousef Al-Roudhan and Faisal Al-Kandari - announced they were infected on their Twitter accounts. The speaker said the ministry of health decided to conduct the tests on Saturday in order to allow seven days from the day of contact, so the results will be accurate.

Replying to a call by some MPs to hold the session with the remaining lawmakers, the speaker said no one knows who is healthy and who is infected until the tests have been conducted. He added that because the Assembly held sessions for three days last week, it is possible that the infected people came in contact with a large number of MPs and staff, and it's better to test all those who may have contacted them.

The next session is scheduled to debate two grillings against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah filed by MPs Abdulkarim Al-Kandari and Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei over alleged mismanagement and violations. Also yesterday, the Cabinet postponed until further notice the start of the fifth phase of return to normal life amid the coronavirus pandemic, government spokesman Tariq Al-Mezrem said.

Meanwhile, MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari asked the prime minister if Kuwait has been asked to open its airspace to Israeli overflights and if Kuwait is taking part in today's ceremony at the White House to celebrate the official signing of normalization of ties between Israel with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.