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.
18 replies on “MOH Starts Sharing Testing Data”
I’m no professional in this field. But 4,000+ daily swabs seems pretty reasonable. 👏🏻 Explains the massive amount of daily cases.
With around 17.5% returning positive, that’s also a pretty good sign considering that the tests were mostly performed in highly infected areas.
I think MOH is handling the situation a lot better now. The bigger the numbers now, the sooner we flatten that curve rather than extend this pandemic
I agree! When I did the maths I actually felt a lot better about the numbers spike! Honestly it’s the most reassured I’ve felt since the whole thing began.
That high rate of positive cases from the total number of swabs is alarming. Makes you wonder if they do 100,000 swabs theyll find 17, 500 cases. The fact that Kuwait is not doing any active mass screening (except for co-ops in the past few days) indicates that we might have a lot of undetected cases.
can they please add residential areas not just the govenates
It’s already there in Arabic
Its sad to see the Ministry of Health using a vague term like “total investigations” to make those numbers look higher. Im sure that 227,000+ isnt all swabs (the gold standard test) and includes that unreliable rapid blood test as well, which has been phased out in most countries due to its high false negative/ false positive results.
I wish their English-translated pages would quit referring to patients as being “cured”, rather than “recovered”. I hope that’s just a translation issue…
Words matter.
I don’t know how much these figures are accurate and real? Some people including one of my friends who had COVID-19 symptoms called MOH for testing but the have been told to stay home and take some antibiotics!! MOH did not test them.
So your friend did not get tested makes all the other numbers fake ? Your story seems so real, and you say some people ( including ) my friend, as if you are aware of such other cases ?? antibiotics is for bacteria not a virus, you know the punishment for spreading false rumors about the MOH efforts right ?
You had me up to the “don’t spread false rumors, punishment, blah blah blah…”. Since some of those rumors (“total curfew starting 10 May”) turned out to be true, and listening (or even CONFIRMING) could have prevented the stampedes at the stores, don’t be too quick to invoke the “PUNISH ALL LIARS!” chestnut.
Transparency can always be improved. For instance, to Mark’s earlier rant, every time I hear someone ask for more info, and someone says, “It’s right there…in ARABIC”, I sorta want to throw up in my own mouth and shake my head at the same time.
But, hey…this lockdown is gonna go on for a good while. Speculation and guesswork is everyone’s new hobby. Like everything else here, everyone should just…get used to it.
Where are you from ? And how did your country deal with the crisis ? Herd immunity ? ( UK ) total denial ? ( US ) Choosing economy over human lives ? ( most of the world ) Did they share info in Arabic too ? Lets hear some criticism in that field , flights out of Kuwait where always open, yet you choose to stay
Oh, I’m from the US, my friend. And totally agree with your criticisms of the US (non)response. But, let’s not forget the US population is SEVENTY times that of Kuwait. It’s land mass is 9.8M sq/km. Kuwait is 18K sq/km. About the size of New Jersey. And, I’d have to check, but I don’t think we turned any parts of our cities into WW2 ghettos. But, we have two major news outlets devoted to rumors. We just don’t threaten to prosecute everyone. Leadership by coercion isn’t leadership.
The US provides data and information in multiple languages, including the majority of non-English languages. Yes, may not seem like it, but we admit other nationalities are an important part of our national fabric. So, in cities where there is a large number of Spanish speakers, or Chinese speakers, and, yes, Arabic speakers, information is multilingual.
If you’d like to get into a tit-for-tat comparison, I’m happy to do that. Especially if you’d like to do a proportional numbers comparison based on population density. Trust me…that’s not gonna turn out well.
Or, we can just say Mark was right and they should consolidate their info to a couple of OFFICIAL sources, make them multilingual, and then make them transparent. Why wouldn’t you? They’re STILL not! 1000 new cases a day, and they’re STILL not aggregating and translating!
Friend, the government sector I work with said they needed me here, so I stayed. We’ll still be having this conversation in June. Probably July, too. See ya then!
So based on your logic you must have 70+ the capacity and man power and medical staff as Kuwait yet the response is that of a third world country.you didnt even provide PPE for the medical staff my friend they had to use garbage bags in New York, the epicenter of the virus, As for the WW2 ghettos , you managed to make for decades black minorities cities to ghettos and still do
So, based on YOUR logic, the “my friend” example shouldn’t be used. Check your own post.
In my original reply, I didn’t say anything about Kuwait’s medical response. It’s been better, per capita, than the US. I was bemoaning the lack of easily-accessed information. Which is true. There are a lot of non-Arabic speakers in this country. There’s a lot of good information being presented. Its just not easily accessible. Why shouldn’t it be?
As far as ghettos, if that’s your example, congrats. You’ve just compared Kuwait to 1930s America.
Information is part of preventive medicine. The emergent care response has been great. The preventive part…mmm…not so much.
Or, do you disagree that information should be made as widely available as possible?
1930’s ? Have you been to Detroit as for the lack of info, your embassy should be more active and take care of its citizens
Do you even know what a rumor is? By the way, it is common for doctors to prescribe antibiotics when someone has a viral infection so they can avoid getting a double infection
I wouldn’t say it’s common.
Where do you pull this graphic? I’ve seen it before. Is it from a site, or IG?