KUWAIT: People shop at a co-op society yesterday, one day before Kuwait was set to start a daily partial curfew following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. - Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh

KUWAIT: Kuwait's COVID-19 cases continued to soar as health authorities announced registering 2,931 new cases over the weekend, in addition to 15 deaths. The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that 1,318 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, raising total cases to 199,428, while seven deaths were registered during the same period, raising total fatalities to 1,120.

Kuwait had reported 1,613 new cases and eight deaths on Friday. The number of COVID-19 patients receiving medical care stood yesterday at 13,077, including 168 in intensive care unit, up from 12,758 patients and 164 in ICUs the previous day. Health ministry spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad said yesterday that health workers conducted 7,966 swab tests over the previous 24 hours, compared to 10,927 announced Friday, as the total number of tests rose to 1,841,282.

Meanwhile, total recoveries reached 185,231 after 992 fresh recoveries were announced yesterday and 918 on Friday. Dr Sanad went on to urge the public to abide by health precautions, mainly social distancing, in order to help limit the spread of the virus.

Kuwait moves today into partial curfew imposed by the government to help curb the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases registered in recent weeks. The 12-hour nightly curfew starts from 5 pm to 5 am for one month. During the curfew hours, pharmacies, medical stores, cooperative societies and supermarkets to continue operation only through delivery services.

Also during the curfew, people are allowed to go to Fajr, Maghreb and Isha prayers at mosques only by walking. During an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the cabinet ordered all parks and public gardens closed in addition to shutting all public seating places. It allowed taxis to carry only two passengers.

The council of ministers meanwhile allowed salons and health clubs to reopen during the day after a one-month closure but kept restaurants and cafes closed except for drive-through and delivery services. The cabinet statement said that the partial lockdown will be evaluated at the end of the one month period, hinting at a possible extension.