Kuwait begins mandatory quarantine for all people entering the country

Feb 22, 2021

Kuwait has instituted a mandatory quarantine for all travelers entering the Gulf state to mitigate the continued spread of COVID-19. The country has also begun vaccinating people against the coronavirus.

As of Sunday, everyone arriving in Kuwait must quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for one week. This is followed by another week at their residence. The measure will remain in effect for one month, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported.

The measure allows non-Kuwaitis to reenter the country. Non-Kuwaitis were banned from entering Kuwait from Feb. 7-21, according to the agency.

Kuwait is still registering a relatively high amount of new infections. There were 899 new confirmed cases of the virus on Monday, according to statistics from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health. Kuwait has registered relatively high amounts of daily cases in February. The 1,048 cases on Feb. 11 were the fourth highest ever in a single day, according to Worldometer.

Kuwait is making progress vaccinating its population of more than 4 million against the virus in the meantime. It administered 175,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Feb. 15. This means at least 3.2% of the population has received at least one dose, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data. Vaccines against COVID-19 often require two doses to be fully effective.