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CoronaMaps Kuwait is a community-driven platform that is built by collaborating with multiple government and non-government organizations.

The platform is operated by volunteers with the goal of creating an information center for sharing community-related information during the Corona crisis in Kuwait. The site visualizes data collected from publicly available resources and will be mapping primary services like health care, home delivery of groceries, community responses and more.

The site launched yesterday night and is still in Beta phase but you can check it out by visiting coronamapskw.com

Puzzles and board games have made a comeback during this pandemic but if you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, then this is for you. Wood Crafter is a local online store that sells wooden models of ships, planes and buildings which you need to put together. Prices seem very reasonable when compared to LEGO but some of the models look incredibly complicated.

The website is pretty easy to browse so check it out here.
Also you can check out their Instagram account @wood.crafter

Yesterday an image and story went viral about a woman who was meant to be under quarantine spotted out shopping in a supermarket. She had entered the supermarket wearing an abaya covering the bracelet and was only discovered while she was waiting in line at the cashier. When confronted by employees she became loud and aggressive and in the end, left the supermarket with her groceries.

She was eventually caught with the help of the Shlonik app and was transferred to mandatory quarantine. Once the quarantine is over she will be referred to legal authorities. Source

I thought authorities would know if someone under quarantine left their home right away? Yesterday Concept15 on Snapchat was talking about how the authorities had called him up because they noticed his wrist bracelet hadn’t moved for some time. He told them the strap had broken so he left it on his desk. They told him to open the door because they were outside with a new one. So if they could tell that his bracelet hadn’t moved for some time, how could they not know when a bracelet completely leaves the home? Or maybe they did know and so were waiting for her outside her house when she got back? No idea.

These two videos embedded here document the Kuwait International Rally back in the 70s. One of the videos was shot in 1976 while the other 1978. Both feature a lot of great 70s style racing footage as well as snippets of Kuwait like the old Hilton Hotel and the Kuwait Towers.

These aren’t homemade videos but properly shot videos with groovy music and a 70s style British voiceover. It’s actually really entertaining to watch even if you aren’t into cars so please check both videos out.

Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter whom I previously posted about a few years ago when he was living in New York. Since then he’s moved to LA and just a couple of days ago released his first track with his new band, Cobra Club.

For the past few years I’ve been really into 80s inspired cinematic synth pop music and Tareq’s new track “Razor” falls right into that category. It’s a great track which I’ve probably already played a dozen times since last night and the music video, which supposedly was shot on a low budget, is really well made and carries over the whole 80s vibe. Can’t wait to hear more of their stuff.

Make sure you check Cobra Club out on Instagram @cobraclubmusic and Tareq on @tarequlous. If you’d like to hear more music similar to this then check out my Spotify playlist “Not the 80s” where you’ll find some of my favorite tracks including Tareqs.

The MOH Instagram account posted the teaser above saying drive-thru testing is coming soon. I’m now kinda curious to see where they’d set these up, the old McDonalds on the Gulf Road would be a great spot since it already handled one of the longest drive-thru lines ever.

Update: I was just informed the first drive-thru testing location will be located at the Jazeera Airways Park & Fly facility. Will be getting more information soon.

Update2: Here is a photo of one lane they’re currently testing. There will be a total of 3 lanes when ready. 2 lanes for the rapid and swab test if u do not have a fever. 1 lane for the full test if u have a fever or if your swab test showed something wrong. You can have 4 people max per car and they will be able to process up to 100 cars per hour at this location.

Yesterday I got an email from Qatar Airways letting me know that they’ve resumed daily flights from Kuwait until the end of the month:

Mr Makhoul, in these challenging times, we are here to support you if you need to travel home. We recently resumed flights from Kuwait so that you can now fly daily to select destinations, until 30 May 2020.

As we understand your travel plans might change, we are offering you more flexibility. You can change your date of travel free of charge, or exchange for a future travel voucher*.

Your safety, security and well-being are our first priority. As always, we provide the highest standards of hygiene on our aircraft, so your journey back home is seamless and safe

All flights are one way only and there is no mention that I need to fly specifically to my home country. So I guess I could fly out to any country that is currently allowing non-citizens/residents to come in. They had some offers mentioned in the email but when I checked their website none of the prices there matched the offers in the email. For example, a one-way economy ticket to London was listed as KD85 in the email but the lowest ticket price I found online was KD168.

I don’t think there are any other airlines flying out daily so I guess whatever they ask for you’re gonna have to pay if you want to leave Kuwait. Also if you’re Kuwaiti, it doesn’t seem like you’re allowed to fly out.

If you’re looking for a new quirky Instagram account to follow, check out @quarantineguykw. Quarantine Guy just recently came back to Kuwait from London and is now in mandatory home quarantine until May 22nd.

Everyone coming back to Kuwait right now has to install the Shlonik app which allows the government to track your whereabouts. Part of the process is that the app will throughout the day randomly check and see where you are and then request you to take a selfie to prove the phone is with you.

Quarantine Guy has started taking selfies with funny messages to whoever is checking the photos and he’s posting the screenshots on his account. Funny stuff so check him out @quarantineguykw

Update: Quarantine Guy just got a call from the Prime Minister!

شاهد || سمو رئيس #مجلس_الوزراء يزور مركز الإتصال والمتابعة الخاص بتطبيق #شلونك الصحي لمتابعة المواطنين العائدين من الخارج والخاضعين للحجر المنزلي. pic.twitter.com/wGJCEwEGRq

— الحقيقة (@ALHAKEA) April 30, 2020

Hall #4 at the Kuwait International Fairground has been turned into a pretty impressive field hospital. The hospital includes 200-beds, 40 ICU beds, 19 emergency beds, a pharmacy, and a pretty cool looking laboratory. This field hospital was put together by KOC and KIPIC and I think the other halls at the fairground are also currently being utilized one way or another to fight the pandemic.

I also read that they’ve started building a quarantine facility at the Jaber Al-Ahmad Sports Stadium that includes a field medical center, dormitories for medics and nurses, 5,000-beds, intensive care units, and pharmacies. As of now, 1,250 beds are ready while the rest under construction.

The Center For Government Communication released a visualization of how Covid-19 spread across Kuwait. Looks like Salmiya is safe 😅

Source @cgckuwait

Thanks xbs

ZAY is an eCommerce platform that has shifted its business model to serve small businesses during COVID19. With items ranging from lounge-wear to home-ware you can shop a variety of items and help Kuwaiti small businesses that are at the risk of shutting down for good.

ZAY sells these items for 0% commission: with the first ten days of Ramadan being flash sales for up to 70% off.

Help Kuwaiti small businesses survive corona, every purchase helps. Shop and help a Kuwaiti business.

If you are a small business and want to sell on ZAY, email us on [email protected]

Website: tryzay.com
Instagram: @try_zay

Apple Music is now officially available in Kuwait. Previously the only way to get Apple Music to work in Kuwait is to have a US based Apple account but now it works with Kuwait ones. I’m not a fan of Apple Muisc, I tried it previously and prefer Spotify instead, but I know a lot of people who like Apple Music more. If someone can let me know what the subscription cost is for Kuwait that would be great since I have a US-based account so can’t try it out myself. Source

If you’re bored during curfew here is something you can get into, board games. My favorite board games shop Good Game is now online. They have a large variety of different board games from super nerdy stuff to fun family ones as well as card games and RPG’s. It doesn’t look like they’ve finished uploading all the product photos but the board game category seems to be all there. So check it out here.

Video game consoles have become a lot harder to find, some like the Nintendo Switch are pretty much sold out everywhere while base models of other consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One quickly disappeared off the shelves with only their more expensive special edition or game bundle versions left to buy. And the fact that Rihab Complex is closed really limited your options to finding a console at a reasonable price.

But, it’s now become easier to get a hold of consoles as more shipments have started arriving into the market. If you’re looking to pick up a video game console to kill some time during curfew, here are a bunch of places you might find them at:

Websites
Alfuhod
Blink
ComplexQ8
GamesQ8
Game Store
Level Up
ProGaming
Taw9eel
Xcite

Whatsapp
Crash Center
Geekay
Hussain (forgot the name of the shop)
Kuwait Toys Center
X4 Games

If you know of other gaming stores, let me know in the comments.

A couple of days ago the Ministry of Health launched a new app called Shlonik. As of this post, it seems like it’s only available for iOS devices but I’m assuming it’s also going to be available for Android phones soon (Update: It’s available already).

Shlonik is an interactive app used to assist the Ministry of Health in Kuwait to engage with all citizens and residents and ensure their safety with focus on COVID-19 pandemic.

Shlonik offers a variety of features such as the latest health updates, a health Bot, a self check-in mechanism for quarantined patients, vitals reporting and a communication tool with the MOH medical teams.

Shlonik is the combined effort of MOH, the Kuwait Central Agency of Information Technology and Zain.

I installed the app and the first thing that caught my attention was the fact it wanted me to turn location tracking on and give the app access to the Apple Health app data. According to Arab Times, the app will be used by people returning to Kuwait from abroad and is meant to help the Ministry keep track of those who are meant to be quarantined at home. To prevent quarantiners from leaving their phone at home and just leaving the house, the app can send a message at random times which needs to be answered. If it isn’t answered within 5 minutes, then the Ministry prevention team will start taking action.

The app has a health bot called the Assessment Agent. If you’re feeling unwell and want to know if you might have Coronavirus symptoms, you get in touch with the agent and answer a few questions. I’m not sure this is working right now since it can’t currently get past the first question no matter if you answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

I haven’t seen the app mentioned on any official Ministry account so it’s safe to assume it hasn’t officially launched yet and they are still finalizing a few things. If you’re an iPhone user and want to download the app, here is the link. If you’re an Android user here is your link.

Thanks Fahad