The Cabinet decision to allow the entry of foreigners with valid residence permits from 1 August, provided they were vaccinated with one of the four vaccines approved by the health authorities in Kuwait, has led to a more than 50,000 applications from expatriates seeking to validate their vaccination certificates online by the technical team assigned for this purpose at the Ministry of Health.
The technical team is charged with checking the vaccination certificates that were uploaded on the ministry’s platform by those who received vaccinations abroad. Following evaluation based on earlier specified criteria, the team either approves or rejects the application. The team then documents approved certificates on official platforms so as to ease the return of the passenger to Kuwait.
According to the cabinet decision, non-Kuwaitis are allowed to enter the country provided they receive two doses of the approved anti-Coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In addition they are also required to conduct a PCR examination 72 hours before arrival, to indicate that they are not infected with the virus.
If the passenger returning to Kuwait had received vaccination from Kuwait, their applications are immediately approved. Sources at the Ministry of Health revealed that until last week more than 50,000 residents had uploaded their vaccination details on the ministry’s online, and that the number of audited certificates reached 12,000.
The audit includes examining the data contained in the certificate as a first stage, and then verifying who issued the certificate in the second stage. With regard to the rejection of certificates issued by some Arab or Asian countries, the sources said, “there is no absolute rejection or acceptance, but there is scrutiny and fulfillment of standards, and the audit process takes longer in some countries of the world, including Arab and Asian countries.”
Regarding a large segment of expatriates who did not complete the vaccination in their countries, the sources confirmed that “all certificates that do not meet the required data, do not carry a barcode, or bear suspicion of forgery are rejected.”