By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: After the coronavirus outbreak reached Kuwait and caused a crisis is all fields, the community felt responsible to help the public authorities. Although the disease is under control in Kuwait, people have concerns it may get worse, especially with new cases registered in different countries every day. The ministry of health has canceled all leaves of its medical staff due to the situation. This encouraged many people to register as volunteers and help the medical staff in dealing with the hundreds of people who have returned to Kuwait and are in quarantine.

The Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) opened registration for those who want to volunteer for helping the staff working at Khairan Resort, which serves as a quarantine site for passengers coming from Iran. According to the society, the number of volunteers who came to register was much larger than expected. These volunteers will stay at the resort and are not allowed to leave, and will be checked before leaving at the end of their mission.

After announcing the first cases of COVID-19, people started panicking and rushed to pharmacies to buy facemasks and hand sanitizers. This caused a great shortage of stocks in the market, and local suppliers were not able to provide enough masks to pharmacies. So as part of their social responsibility, some companies engaged in various commercial activities decided to import thousands of facemasks and donate them to people, starting with their employees and to the public.

Not only companies, but some individuals also made it their initiative to provide any kind of help they can. For instance, a popular Kuwaiti social media influencer imported 100,000 facemasks and started distributing it to people near mosques, at the entrance of co-ops and other places. Due to the huge numbers, he then decided to distribute the rest of the masks to customers of his restaurant.

The government also announced providing support to some affected countries such as China and Iran to help them defeat the virus. Volunteers can contact the Kuwait Red Crescent Society on 1814814 ext 266 from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm.