KUWAIT: Kuwaitis wearing face masks walk at The Avenues Mall in Kuwait City yesterday as people vaccinated against COVID-19 can only enter malls, restaurants, cultural centers, and cinemas, according to the law. - Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality teams were yesterday inspecting shops, malls, coffee shops and gyms in different governorates to make sure only people who received COVID-19 vaccines were allowed to enter, or the facility would be fined with KD 5,000. The inspections were in compliance with a government decision to only allow vaccinated persons to enter these facilities starting yesterday.

Director of inspection and services follow up department at Ahmadi office, Saad Al-Shaiba, said teams were working round-the-clock to make sure only vaccinated persons enter shopping malls, restaurants, salons and coffee shops. He said owners of the facilities were complying with the government's decision, which was part of efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Al-Shaiba said the Municipality carried out an awareness campaign before execution of the decision, so the teams would take all legal measures against people violating the decision. Sulaiman Al-Ghais, Director of violations at Municipality's Al-Jahra office, said teams in Al-Jahra were accompanied by a police force in order to enforce the implementation of the government decision.

Al-Ghais, speaking to KUNA, commended managements of shopping malls and gyms to make sure non-vaccinated persons were not allowed to enter the facilities. He said a facility would be fined KD 5,000 if it allowed non-vaccinated persons, unless the management prove the visitor breached the restriction decision.

Kuwait government decided on June 17 it would allow access to most public venues only for fully vaccinated people, in an effort to contain the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant, which has been behind a sharp rise in new infections. As per the new rules, only those who have had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will be allowed to enter large shopping malls, gyms and salons, in addition to state bodies that provide services. On public venue admission for those vaccinated, a smartphone app called "Immune" will be valid proof of immunization and subsequent entry to these venues.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Jaber, head of the Capital health requirements implementation department, said teams were touring the shopping malls, gyms, restaurants, coffee shops, cinema theaters and cultural centers to make sure they were in compliance with the government's decision. - KUNA