By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Kuwait announced last Tuesday that passengers from 10 nations need health clearance to enter the country, whereby they must undergo medical tests and procure certificates that yield negative results for coronavirus infection before getting onto a Kuwait-bound plane.

The decision will be implemented on March 8, where the examination certificate must be issued by medical centers approved by Kuwaiti embassies in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Georgia and Lebanon. But during this period, many Egyptians reported new procedures for comers from Egypt at the airport.

Hagar Goda told Kuwait times that one hour after the plane took off heading to Kuwait, the flight attendants handed her a paper to fill up. The paper titled 'health surveillance card' says: "For your safety, please follow the instructions in this card, otherwise, you will be subjected to the provisions of the Amiri Decrees 33/1960 and 8/1969 which state that the violator shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month and a fine not exceeding KD 50 or one of these two penalties.

The law requires that all passengers arriving to Kuwait from one of the areas affected by communicable diseases, or countries from where passengers should be monitored, to check one of the preventive health centers mentioned on the card within 72 hours starting from the date of their arrival to the country." Goda added that she went through procedures including a temperature check to make sure that she was in good health.

Another Egyptian woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that temperature checkpoints "were everywhere" and she filled up the health card with the information needed, but she also was obligated to sign a pledge for home quarantine for 14 days and to avoid mixing with people at work. Also, she was handed health instructions for individuals under personal health monitoring on how and what to do in addition to instructions on symptoms of the virus and where to go if she develops any of them.