Kuwaiti Ministry of Health (MoH) on Thursday advised people not to be scared with the World Health Organization’s classification of coronavirus as a pandemic. The WHO declaration should not trigger panic among the people; instead they ought to adhere to precautions, said Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad, the MoH Official Spokesperson in the daily briefing about developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Explaining, Dr. Al-Sanad has said the term pandemic does not necessarily mean increase in intensity of the disease; rather expansion of its geographical spread. There were six WHO-affiliated regions where the disease appeared and their number did not change. “Therefore, the situation has no changed except for an increase in the cases,” he said.
The MoH has conducted 6,841 swab tests, including 1,718 in the past five days at a rate of 330 per day, Dr. Al-Sanad said. Quarantine duration for some of the 918 people in isolation will end soon, he added. Affirming that resisting the pandemic is a common national responsibility, he has re-affirmed keenness on adherence to necessary health precautions noting that there is a “glimpse of hope” that a vaccine to kill the virus may be discovered soon.
Early in the week, there were 111 states that declared coronavirus cases but now the number increased to 114. Also, there were 102,000 cases worldwide and currently there was 119,000 ones. Also by comparison according to the same period, there were 21,000 patients outside China but the figure rose to 25,000 and later to 29,000 and then to 33,000. Today, the figure was 38,000 outside China which has less than 81,000 cases. Ninety percent of the overall cases in the globe were in four countries including China which declared “recession of the disease, and this was a positive sign,” he elaborated.
The World Health Organization has bases for states’ action against the disease — alertness, preparedness, examination, protection, treatment, spread prevention, awareness and innovation. Kuwait for its part has been applauded for its achievements in the sector of public health, the third goal of the sustainable development.
He alluded to a statement by Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Basel Al-Sabah, on Wednesday, about recovery of three patients, thus “now we have five of such cases.” At start of the week, there were 61,000 recovery cases throughout the world and currently the figure reached 65,000.
