Government departments on Sunday saw the resumption of official work hours at 100 employees’ capacity, a year and a half after the coronavirus prompted authorities to lower the number of civil servants showing up at work as a precaution against COVID-19.
Employees’ turn-up has been upped gradually as of recently with easing measures as indicators have shown dwindling numbers of infections and deaths with the pathogen, amid a national intensive campaign to immunize as many people as possible and forecast that Kuwait would record 70 percent of vaccinations by summer end.
His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah last Thursday affirmed that by end of September, the vaccinations rate would hit 70 percent of the country’s population, “thus we will achieve community (herd) immunity that will enable us to resume a normal life.” Up until now, 2.6 million people in Kuwait have been vaccinated, equivalent to approximately 66 percent of the population, the prime minister has affirmed. The Cabinet, on August 4, declared the resumption of regular official work hours in all public departments and sectors as of Sunday (today) after Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Bassel Humoud Al-Sabah informed the ministers that numbers of coronavirus casualties in the country have been declining along with shrinking occupancy at hospitals and intensive care wards.
The Civil Service Commission has declared commitment to the cabinet decision, affirming that civil servants are no longer allowed to be absent without legal grounds. Therefore, work is back to seven hours per day, the regular schedule. The official spokesperson of the Ministry of Health (MoH) Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad has recently declared that the epidemical indexes showed a decline in the number of cases as compared to the swab tests, in addition to the cases at intensive care wards, lauding relentless efforts on part of the citizens and expatriates in the combat against the contagion.
The rate of the casualties’ decline was 28.3 percent, that of active cases 25.5 percent, cases at the covid wards 18.4 percent, at the intensive care units 8.4 percent, and the proportion as per the tests, 2.23 percent, Dr. Al-Sanad said. The decrease of the cases coincided with mounting vaccinations as part of the national immunization campaign, covering both citizens and expatriates. The government departments resumed work during Eid Al-Fitr holiday at 60 percent of the employees. The MoH had solely maintained a 100 percent employees’ show up since the eruption of the pandemic in the country, while the proportion in other public sectors did not exceed 30 percent.
Source-KUNA