Category: Coronavirus

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by الحساب الرسمي لتطبيق شلونك (@shlonik2020) on May 17, 2020 at 5:10am PDT

A humorous ad by Shlonik that promotes their app. Shlonik published it last night in their new Instagram account @shlonik2020.

Kuwait is currently performing around 4,000 COVID-19 tests a day, but how does that compare with the rest of the world? Is it a lot? Too little?

According to Worldometer, a website that is trusted by the UK Government, the New York Times, BBC and many others, Kuwait ranks 20th worldwide when it comes to tests per 1 million of the population. The highest tested country in this list is the Faeroe Islands, while UAE ranks third. Below are some highlights but for the full list here is the link.

1- Faeroe Islands
2- Iceland
3- UAE
5- Bahrain
13- Denmark
16- Spain
20- Kuwait
21- Qatar
24- Italy
28- Russia
36- UK
39- USA
66- Saudi Arabia
74- Jordan
91- Lebanon
139- India
147- Egypt

Yesterday evening the first drive-thru COVID-19 testing center opened up to the public. Because there is currently a lockdown and because of the fact we only have one testing facility at the moment, you will need to be invited by the Ministry of Health to be tested.

According to the MOH they will randomly pick people for the large scale COVID-19 testing. People will be notified that they’ve been selected by SMS and an appointment date and time will be shared with them. You are then meant to apply for a curfew pass and head to the Jazeera Airways Park & Fly facility which has been converted to a testing center.

If you receive the message from the Ministry, you head there on the day scheduled and a swab test is performed on you. Your results are usually out within 48 hours. Once done from your test, your car is disinfected by the Fire Department on the way out.

The announcement was made on the MOH Instagram and twitter accounts last night only in Arabic. I was told the reason it was published only in Arabic is that it was only for Kuwaitis, but I’ve also heard this is for expats so not sure who is right.

Then there are two other issues, the first is what if you are picked but you don’t have a car? How do you get to the testing center? The other issue is if this is a mandatory test or not? Going by the comments on twitter there are a lot of people who believe they can’t be forced to be tested, so what happens to people who don’t show up to their appointments?

There is one question that is being asked over and over on the blog and I don’t seem to have a good answer for. How can you get food from the supermarket if you don’t have a Civil ID card? To book an appointment on the moci.shop website you need to have a Civil ID number but that means anyone in Kuwait on a tourist visa, or anyone that moved to Kuwait just before the government shut down and didn’t get their Civil ID yet won’t be able to book an appointment.

There was a blog post that got published yesterday about an American couple in Kuwait on tourist visas complaining about this. Although the article has some inaccurate information in it (there is no 30 item limit when shopping at the supermarket for example), it does highlight this issue further.

So how do you get food if you don’t have a Civil ID? The best options I’ve been able to come up with are the following:

– Order food from the bakala on your street since they are allowed to open during the lockdown.

– Order from the Coop with Whatsapp. Every area coop has a delivery service by Whatsapp and some even have websites. Visit your Coop Instagram account for more information.

Previously I’ve suggested ordering from Oncost since they were delivering during the lockdown but they’ve stopped that now. If you have another option other than the two I’ve listed, let us know in the comments.

Update: A few moments ago @mociq8 posted the graphic below. If you’re in Kuwait on a tourist or family visa you can now book an appointment!

Here is a bit of good news for expats stuck outside of Kuwait, according to the Arab Times, Kuwait will start allowing some expats to come into Kuwait but only under humanitarian basis such as children who have been separated from their families due to the crisis or parents who are stuck abroad. Source

The past few weeks they’ve allowed some expats to fly back in but they were either expats married to Kuwaitis, or domestic workers who flew back in with their Kuwaiti sponsors.

To register to come back you need to visit the Ministry of Foreign affairs website. I’m assuming its the same registration form as the one Kuwaitis used but the Arab Times article doesn’t say. Here is a link to the registration page which was previously used, it’s currently only in Arabic so they’d have to add an English version soon. Link

Update: According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Arab Times article is NOT true and they aren’t planning to set up a website for expats to register on. Only Kuwaitis and first degree relatives of Kuwaitis are currently allowed to come back. Source

Yesterday the MOH added two new categories to their daily COVID-19 updates, the number of Nasopharyngeal (NP) swab tests performed in the last 24 hours, and the total number of tests they’ve done so far. Previous to this I don’t think this data was available to the general public, or at least it wasn’t easy to find.

Based on the comments people have been leaving on the blog related to booking supermarket appointments, I noticed there is some confusion or lack of clarity with the process, as well as some technical issues people are facing. So below are some of the most common questions and issues with their answers.

How do I book a supermarket appointment?
Visit https://www.moci.shop/

How do I use the moci.shop website?
Watch this video:

Can I drive to the supermarket?
Yes. When you get a supermarket appointment you’ll be given two QR codes. One will give you access to the supermarket, the second is a security QR code for when you get stopped by a cop or a checkpoint.

Can I walk to the supermarket?
Yes. When you get a supermarket appointment you’ll be given two QR codes. One will give you access to the supermarket, the second is a security QR code for when you get stopped by a cop.

How often can I book an appointment?
Once every 7 days.

How long can I shop for?
You’re allowed 30 minutes of shopping but readers have said they were allowed to shop for longer.

What is “Civil Serial” number?
You can find your “Civil Serial” on the back of your Civil ID card.

My Civil ID card is expired, can I still use it to book an appointment?
Yes, you can.

On the appointment website when I selected “My address doesn’t match my Civil ID info” it asked for my “Address Auto No”, what is that?
That’s your PACI number which you can find outside your apartment door.

When I select the option to change the address it isn’t recognizing my PACI and giving me the error “Auto Number is Unknown”, how do I fix that?
Find your building PACI number using this link: http://gis.paci.gov.kw/

When I tried to book an appointment I got the error message “Sorry!! Civil ID has no data.” what do I do?
Try again using a different web browser.

I never got a confirmation email with my reference number, how can I cancel my booking?
Call 101

I canceled my appointment but the website isn’t letting me book a new appointment, what do I do?
Many readers have reported this issue, try booking at a different supermarket and if that doesn’t work call 101.

Can I take my husband/wife/mum/friend/whomever with me to the supermarket? How many people can I take with me?
Appointments are valid only for one person so you can’t take anyone with you. If you want to go with someone else to the supermarket, they will have to get their own appointment.

Can an X amount of people go grocery shopping at the same time in the same car?
Yes as long as everyone has their own appointment and for the same time.

How can I book a specific supermarket like Lulu, Saveco or Sultan? I can’t see them on the list?
If you don’t see a specific supermarket in the options you’re given that means you can’t select them. You only have access to the supermarkets in your area.

I am on visit visa and so I don’t have a Civil ID card, can I book an appointment with someone else’s Civil ID?
No, you can’t. If you’re here on your visit visa you can enter the unified number mentioned in the visa in place of the Civil ID and Serial number. This will allow you to book an appointment.

I have a problem and I can’t find the answer to my question, what do I do?
Call 101

I didn’t go out for a walk yesterday but watched the large crowd from my balcony. I live inside the old Salmiya souk and my neighbor told me it was PACKED yesterday so might check it out today just to take some photos. In any case, I noticed a lot of people weren’t wearing masks nor social distancing even though they should.

Can we please cancel the 2 hours go out and mingle rule and just have a proper 24/7 lockdown till the end of the month? I'd rather do this right and get it over with instead of having to do another 24/7 lockdown once this 22/7 lockdown is over. #Kuwait pic.twitter.com/lHwOBWZepi

— mark248am (@mark248am) May 11, 2020

Personally, as I tweeted yesterday, I think these 2 hours should be canceled. But I also live in a large apartment and I have a rower for exercising so it’s easier for me to say that. I don’t understand why people don’t get the concept of social distancing. Are they just not taking the virus seriously? Or are they just not aware of how dangerous it is? It’s been the case ever since the pandemic started.

Looks like courier companies might go back to delivering packages. DHL posted that they will continue to deliver packages during the lockdown and I also heard that Aramex Shop&Ship will also resume service. I have a package coming in with UPS so I’m hoping they’ll continue delivering as well.

I haven’t posted a rant in years I think, but I’m really pissed off about two things, one that’s too late to be fixed, but the other one can still be.

The first thing I want to complain about is the way the lockdown was announced where it basically gave the whole population just a day to try and buy enough food for 3 weeks. That didn’t make any sense. The scenes I saw on Saturday were heartbreaking. It was survival, people tossed aside social distancing not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Supermarkets across the country were PACKED with large crowds, super long lines, and no social distancing. I shot the video below on Friday, BEFORE the lockdown announcement. It was a line for a mini-market down the street from my place so just imagine how long the lines were at major supermarkets across Kuwait on Saturday after the lockdown was announced. We don’t have a shortage of food in Kuwait nor a shortage of supermarkets, but the way this lockdown was announced late at night without having the proper infrastructure in place (like private supermarkets on moci.shop) or enough time for people to go out and stock up caused this chaos.

The second thing I’m really pissed off but is something that can easily be fixed is about how the information is being shared. 90% of the information is being shared only in Arabic. Why? I know Kuwait is an Arabic country so what? I’m Lebanese and I can barely read Arabic and I’ve lived all my life in Kuwait. What about the expats who aren’t Arab? What about the low-income workers who barely can communicate in their native tongue let alone read multiple languages? Kuwait is the home of many nationalities and in a crisis like this where it is important that every message gets across to everyone, you can’t have information being shared only in Arabic. You want everyone to use the moci.shop website to book appointments? Have it in multiple languages then. Right now if you visit the site its all in Arabic, even the option to change the language to English is in Arabic. At least have a tiny UK or American flag icon that people can click to translate.

You can’t disagree with me on this either, so don’t bother leaving a comment saying if you’re in an Arabic country you need to learn the language or gtfo. This pandemic isn’t the time for this. Right now the question should simply be HOW CAN WE GET THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION OUT TO THE MOST NUMBER OF PEOPLE? And the answer is everything, needs to be published in multiple languages.

Instagram allows you to share multiple slides per post. Have the first slide in Arabic and then the next few slides in other languages. Hire people to do the translations, don’t have the money then ask for volunteers! And don’t just post on official channels. The MOH, MOI and other government agencies should coordinate with popular expat accounts like @kuwaitup2date and have important information published there. Go to where the people are and not just expect people to come to you.

Also, have all the information across all your media channels. I’m finding stuff for example on twitter.com/cgckuwait that isn’t on instagram.com/cgckuwait. Why? Why do I need to check all your social media channels to get all the info? Publish everything everywhere, it’s not hard to do.

Then you have other strange decisions. The visual I shared a while ago highlighting the different facilities that are available during the lockdown. The Arabic version was published as a permanent post in the @cgckuwait Instagram account while the English one was posted as a temporary story. Why? Why can’t both be stories and permanent posts? What if I missed your story today? So much stuff doesn’t make sense.

Just to be clear my issue isn’t just with the @cgckuwait account. All the issues I’ve mentioned above apply to all the official sources.

Anyway, I’m done complaining. Happy lockdown everyone.

Late last night private supermarkets became available as an option on the moci.shop website. Previously you could only book an appointment at the Coop, which was fine for low-density areas like Bayan and Mishref where the population is around 40,000. But Salmiya, for example, has a population of over 300,000 so sharing one Coop was not going to work.

I was actually super pissed about this because they had announced the lockdown BEFORE making private supermarkets available on the moci.shop website. This meant nobody could get a shopping appointment at the already fully booked Coops, so you ended up with the mass panic of the past two days where everyone was out scrambling to get enough food to store up for 3 weeks.

Anyway if you’ve never booked through the moci.shop website and want to know how it works, check out my previous post here.

If you’re wondering about courier companies, as of now they aren’t allowed to function. So no shipments can come in from abroad. Hopefully that changes.

Thanks Nibaq

Staying home for the next 3 weeks would have been such a chill plan if it wasn’t for the fact that I won’t be able to order food. I hope that rule gets loosened up cuz it would make my life so much easier being able to order lunch.

We get two hours a day to go out for a walk, and I was against that at first because if we are gonna lockdown, we might as well do it right. But then I realized this might be great for dog owners who need to walk their dogs, or for people to go feed the stray cats they usually take care of.

Anyway, below are all the details regarding the lockdown taken from @cgckuwait

Drive-In movie theaters have started making a comeback around the world amid the COVID-19 crisis. It makes sense since you’re isolated in your car away from everyone else. Sadly for us, the last standing drive-in movie theater in Kuwait was the Ahmadi drive-in pictured above and it got demolished last year. Maybe Cinescape can put together a makeshift one in some large parking lot because I really doubt normal cinemas are going to open up anytime in the near future.

Corona Care is a national counseling program that provides free counseling sessions to those affected the most by the COVID 19 pandemic:

– Medical health professionals on the frontline
– COVID 19 patients
– Individuals in institutionalized quarantine

Once you visit the website you’ll find a bunch of short FAQ videos and an interactive questionnaire you can take. Depending on how you answer the questionnaire you’ll be given different recommendations and if by the end of the screening you’re eligible for the free counseling, then you will be contacted to set up a counseling session with a mental health expert within the same week.

The sessions are held privately through an online platform and are completely confidential. If you think you need counseling and belong to one of the segments mentioned above, then check out the Corona Care website here.