Coronavirus: Kuwait assures firefighters as they undergo tests

Fire service was mobilised to make home deliveries of medical prescriptions amid lockdown

A surveillance drone hovers over residents in a neighbourhood of Kuwait City on May 12, 2020 as authorities try to ensure compliance with coronavirus regulations. AFP

Kuwaiti authorities are seeking to reassure the country’s firefighters that they will be looked after amid a reported outbreak of coronavirus in the service.

The official news agency Kuna quoted an official in the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate as saying that facilities have been prepared to house fire fighters as they undergo testing for the infection.

Fayez Al Nassar said his organisation is “taking care to preserve the safety of the firefighters and make available all their needs”.

Mr Al Nassar did not disclose how many firefighters have tested positive.

But he said department personnel confirmed as having been infected are being housed in chalets belonging a state petrochemical company and that the dwellings are serviced by hotels.

Kuna reported last week that infections were discovered in one unit of the firefighting service, and that the authorities were investigating a fire official for posting a video on social media “aimed at spreading lies and rumours” about the coronavirus.

The government mobilised the fire service to deliver medical prescriptions to the homes of patients amid lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus. The firefighters have delivered more than 30,000 prescriptions over six weeks.

Infections in Kuwait have been rising sharply despite bans on movement and the closure of the major supermarket chain after cases were discovered among its workers.

As of Wednesday, the authorities had registered 17,500 coronavirus cases, including 124 fatalities.

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Coronavirus in the region

A maid from the Philippines wears a mask to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus as she walks in front of a newspaper kiosk in central Beirut's commercial Hamra Street, in Beirut, Lebanon. AP Photo

A customer wears a protective face mask while shopping in the plant department at an Ikea AB store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg

A Syrian man waits for customers at a second-hand clothes shop at a flea market in the capital Damascus, Syria. AFP

A Palestinian school girl views her end of year certificate upon receiving it at a school in Gaza City. AFP

Children play at Kugulu Park in Ankara as Turkey allowed children under 14 to leave their homes within walking distance and wearing masks between 11 am and 3 pm. AFP

A volunteer from the International Association for Relief and Development (ONSUR) distributes face masks to internally displaced children, ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, at an IDP camp in Idlib, Syria. Reuters

Children play in a playground in Ankara as Turkey allowed children under 14 to leave their homes within walking distance and wearing masks between 11am and 3pm. AFP

A Palestinian school girl holds up her braid before her mask as she stands inside a school in Gaza City. AFP

Iraqi itinerant barber Hussain Majid gives a haircut to a client at his house in Baghdad, Iraq. EPA

Volunteers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant on a motorist riding a motorbike, in Kabul. AFP