Kuwait to move to phase three of reopening this week

Kuwait will move to the third phase of its five-phase plan to "return to normalcy" later this week, despite the number of new and active Covid-19 cases remaining stubbornly high.

The third phase is set to start on 28 July, and will see a shortening of the country-wide curfew by three hours to between 21:00 and 03:00 "until further notice." The current curfew, which has been in place since 30 June, lasts between 20:00 and 05:00.

As of today, the authorities are also lifting isolation measures on Farwaniya governorate - the last of a number of areas to be placed under full lockdown because of particularly high infection rates. Jleeb al-Shuyoukh and Mahboula, which had also been under lockdown for the same reason, had their lockdowns lifted on 9 July. All three areas were first placed under full lockdown on 6 April.

The transition to phase three will come four weeks after Kuwait moved to phase two on 30 June. All phases were originally supposed to last three weeks, with the aim of lifting all measures by the middle of September, but both phases one and two have been extended, likely due to the fact that progress on curbing the spread of the outbreak has been slower than hoped.

Since 30 June, the number of daily new Covid-19 cases has averaged 684, down from 737 in the last week of June. But the number of active cases now stands at 9,273, up slightly from 8,811 on 30 June.

Kuwait has also said it aims to gradually restart commercial flights to and from Kuwait International Airport (KIA) from 1 August.

This gradual loosening of restrictions should translate into a recovery in transport fuel demand, which has been heavily affected by the pandemic. State-owned refiner KNPC in mid-April reported that domestic demand for gasoline and jet fuel had plunged by 55pc and 70pc, respectively, as a result of the Covid-19 mitigation measures.

By Ieva Paldaviciute