Manama: Kuwait has extended indefinitely the ban on the entry of foreigners into the country, the civil aviation authority said on late Saturday.
“Based on the instructions of health authorities, it has been decided to extend the ban on entry of non-Kuwaiti passengers’ until further notice,’’ the authority said in a tweet on its official handle.
Kuwaiti passengers can continue to enter the country provided that they quarantine in local hotels for a period of seven days and self-isolate at home for another seven days.
The government clamped the entry ban on expat for two weeks starting February 7, which was supposed to expire on Feb 21.
The civil aviation authority said on Friday that it would allow non-Kuwaiti to enter the country starting Feb. 21 subject to strict conditions. Quoting DGCA, local media reported on Saturday that Kuwait would lift the ban on the 35 ‘high-risk’ countries and allow passengers to travel directly to Kuwait from Sunday.
Earlier in a press release, DGCA said people coming from previously restricted countries via direct flights would be quarantined at local hotels for 14 days, while passengers arriving from other countries will be quarantined at local hotels for seven days and another seven days at home.
However, Kuwait reversed its decision at the last minute and extended the ban until further orders.
Meanwhile, Kuwait added 33 new countries into the list of 35 high-risk countries on the backdrop of current covid cases, bringing the total to 68 countries. Of those that have been added to the list includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United States, Germany and South Africa.al
The travel ban from 35 countries were first announced in August after the Kuwait international airport resumed commercial travel.
Kuwait continues to report higher daily new coronavirus cases since December. The total covid cases in the country now stood at 183,322, 171,260 recovered patients and 1,039 deaths as of Saturday.
