Kuwait Mobilizes To Confront ‘omicron’ Stresses On Need To Adhere To Health Requirements

The Minister of Health, Dr. Basil Al-Sabah chaired a meeting at the ministry to discuss ways and plans to deal with Omicron, the new mutant that first appeared in South Africa and soon spread in a number of African countries located in the south of the continent.

Health sources told Al-Jarida that the Ministry of Health has submitted its recommendations to the Supreme Committee for Corona Emergencies, including stricter epidemiological surveillance of people coming via transit from the countries where the new mutant was found to make sure they smear tests are carried out, in addition to encouraging them to receive the third stimulant dose and adhere to all precautionary measures and health requirements. The ministry said talk about returning to square one is premature.

Dr Khaled Al-Jarallah, insisted the solution to protecting from the virus lies in everyone, without exception, opting to get vaccinated and maintaining epidemiological vigilance until the world sees the back of the virus.

Director of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation administration, Youssef Al-Fawzan, told the daily a letter has been addressed to the Travel Companies Association stressing the need to adhere to the health requirements in force in Kuwait and the world on all inbound flights and to adhere to all standing instructions.

At the international level, fears in Europe have risen about the spread of the new mutant since it was already facing the onset of a fifth wave of the pandemic.

After the first infection was detected in Belgium, yesterday, infections and suspected cases were monitored in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic, which means the possibility of preventing its spread has become almost impossible.

One case of ‘Omicron’ infection was recorded in Hong Kong and two in Israel, among two people returning from Malawi and Botswana, and reports in South Africa said that 50 infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours, in addition to 77 cases reported earlier.

In all continents, many countries are close to suspending flights to and from South Africa, and travel restrictions apply, in addition to the latter, to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi in some cases.

While there have been calls in Britain to reduce the gap between the second dose of the vaccine and the booster dose from 6 months to 5, scientists are already trying to understand these new mutations, while pharmaceutical companies are working to modify and adapt their vaccines to confront “Omicron”.

And the companies Pfizer and Biontech, which manufacture the new anti-Coronavirus vaccine, announced that they are able to export modified vaccines against the new mutant within 100 days, while Novavax said that a new version of the anti-Corona vaccine, to target “Omicron”, will be ready for testing and manufacturing can begin in the next few weeks.

The British scientist, who led research on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Professor Andrew Pollard, who also directs the “Oxford Vaccine Group”, said that a new vaccine could be developed ‘very quickly’ against “Omicron”.

Pollard considered the spread of this mutant severely among those who were vaccinated “as we saw last year” with “Delta” is highly unlikely, but he estimated that the current vaccines are effective against “Omicron”, which the World Health Organization considers “disturbing”.

Sources at the Public Authority for Manpower confirmed that the decision to stop issuing work permits from abroad to citizens of some African countries in which “Omicron” appeared is in the hands of the Supreme Committee for Corona Emergencies.

Informed sources revealed to Al-Jarida that officials of the Ministry of Education are closely following up the developments of the new mutation in coordination with the health authorities in the country, pointing out that the school hours so far continue according to the partial return plan for groups (A) and (B).
The sources said that the health authorities will decide whether there is a return to distance education or the continuation of the currently applied system.

 

SOURCE : TIMES KUWAIT

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