Kuwait announces suspension of direct flights with 9 African countries, including South Africa

The Kuwaiti government announced on 27 local time that it will suspend direct commercial flights with nine African countries, including South Africa, to prevent the importation of a new mutant strain of the New Coronavirus recently reported by South Africa and other countries.

The Kuwaiti government said in a statement that night, in order to prevent the importation of new mutant strains of the new coronavirus, will be suspended from 28 onwards with South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Malawi and other nine African countries of direct commercial flights, except for cargo flights.

The statement said that non-Kuwaiti nationals flying directly from these countries or traveling to Kuwait via a third country will be barred from entry unless they have stayed in the third country for at least 14 days prior to entry; and that Kuwaiti nationals returning to Kuwait from these countries will be required to be centrally quarantined for seven days after entry and tested for New Coronavirus nucleic acid upon entry and on the sixth day of entry. The Kuwaiti government has also called on its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to the above-mentioned countries at this stage.

A number of countries, including South Africa, have recently reported a new variant of the new coronavirus strain B.1.1.529, which was classified by the World Health Organization as a variant of "concern" on the 26th, and named with the Greek letter "Omicron" (Ο). In order to prevent the entry and spread of this new strain, many countries have imposed entry restrictions on flights and passengers from southern Africa and upgraded prevention and control measures.