The penalties imposed on the discovery a passenger had presented a forged PCR test certificate is that he or she will be forced to return on the same flight to the destination he or she departed from, while the airline will be fined KD 500 dinars for permitting the passenger to travel, and the fines will increase for every passenger caught with a forged test, Al-Qabas daily reported, said an official source at Kuwait International Airport.
If the passenger is a Kuwaiti citizen, the source stated, he or she is tested at the airport again, and will have to submit to health regulations, but will be allowed to enter the country with a fine registered against the carrier airline.
The source stated that MUNA platform, which is concerned with linking external laboratories around the world, will possibly end any fraud in the PCR test certificates, since the external laboratories in which the traveler will conduct the tests are approved by the health authorities in Kuwait. The Cabinet has assigned the Ministry of Health in coordination with the Ministry of Finance to ensure all passengers coming to Kuwait are registered on the MUNA platform.
The MUNA program links a wide network of accredited laboratories, which guarantees the reliability of PCR test certificates, which is invaluable for the country’s health authorities to verify through the program all the details of the PCR test before the passengers’ arrival to Kuwait. It also helps to update authorities regarding the name of the laboratory the test was carried out and the medical history of the passengers. Hence, MUNA is considered the first line of defence against the coronavirus infection spread, Al Qabas daily reported.
To that effect, a recommendation is being planned to be submitted to the Council of Ministers to introduce a new condition for passengers coming to the country.
Regarding the motives for resorting to this new condition, the source stated that through the compulsory test of arrivals by medical staff at the airport, infected Coronavirus cases were discovered, despite the fact that they carried recent PCR test certificates.