- Unvaccinated Kuwaitis cannot travel abroad
- New regulation will go in effect on May 22
- Kuwaitis from age groups who lack eligibility to get COVID-19 shots will not be affected
Kuwaiti government cabinet announced that only Kuwaiti citizens who have received COVID-19 vaccine shots will be allowed to travel abroad, while unvaccinated Kuwaitis will have to remain in the emirate.
New regulation will go in effect on May 22. According to Kuwait‘s Information Ministry, Kuwaitis from age groups who lack eligibility to get COVID-19 shots will not be affected by new restriction.
Kuwait, which has a population of over 4.4 million, has so far administered more than 1.1 million doses of vaccines, according to World Health Organization data. Two jabs – those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca – have been registered for use by the oil-rich country.
Earlier ban on entry for non-Kuwaiti citizens has remained in place, as has the order issued in April to suspend all flights from India due to the surge in infections there.
Kuwaiti itself has seen a rise in daily coronavirus cases in the first months of the year, with between 1,300 and 1,500 people getting infected daily.
Since the start of the pandemic, 276,500 people in Kuwait have tested positive for COVID-19. The emirate has registered almost 1,600 fatalities related to coronavirus.