KUWAIT: Kuwait recorded 616 new coronavirus cases and two deaths in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said yesterday. The new figures raised the total number of cases to 101,299 and deaths to 580, ministry spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad said in a statement to the press. He noted that 152 cases were registered in Hawally governorate, 171 in Ahmadi, 91 in Farwaniya, 107 in the Capital and 95 in Jahra.

There are currently 101 patients in ICUs, as the total number of patients still receiving medical care is 8,368, he added. The number of swabs tests conducted in the past 24 hours amounted to 4,622, raising the total number of tests to 720,509, he added. The ministry had announced earlier that 729 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of recoveries to 92,341.

Kuwait had breached the 100,000 COVID-19 infection barrier 212 days since the first case of a female citizen returning from Iran was detected on Feb, 24, followed by 1,000 infections within 72 hours, Al-Rai reported yesterday. Meanwhile, the 'Social Watcher' platform showed that reaching the first 10,000 infections took 79 days - on May 12. However, the second 10,000 cases were registered in only 11 days, on May 23, the third 10,000 cases were registered in 13 days on June 5, and the fourth 10,000 cases were registered within 17 days on June 22.

The fifth 10,000 cases were registered in 15 days on July 6, the sixth 10,000 cases were registered within 15 days on July 21, and the seventh 10,000 cases were registered within 17 days on Aug 3. In the meantime, the eighth 10,000 cases were registered in 18 days on Aug 23, the ninth 10,000 cases were registered in 15 days on Sept 7 and the tenth 10,000 cases were registered in 15 days on Sept 22. This makes the average period of registering 10,000 infections almost 15 days.

Kuwait ranked eighth in the world's top 10 countries with the highest rates of COVID-19 infections compared to their population as of Tuesday. And after exceeding 100,000 infections, Kuwait is ranked 37th worldwide in the number of coronavirus cases in general. Starting July 16, 2020, the health ministry stopped providing data about the nationalities of infected cases and their distribution as per health zones or areas.

The ministry also started obscuring data about the nationalities of infected non-Kuwaiti cases on June 17. On May 4, it stopped providing information about certain cases concerning the sources of infection, nationalities, age and gender of the dead or the period they spent in ICUs. The report added that as a result, data about 47,582 cases (47 percent of the total number) and about 548 fatalities (93 percent of the total number of 588) were obscured.