Two Kuwaiti Women Infected with Coronavirus Variant: Moh
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JAMADA ALTHANI 7, 1442 AH WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2021 16 Pages Max 23º Min 08º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18339 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Trump spends last day in White Pandemic reveals hidden Oldest city in the Americas ‘Miracle’ at the Gabba 5 House, Biden goes to Washington 9 poverty in wealthy Japan 13 under threat from squatters 16 as India stun Australia Two Kuwaiti women infected with coronavirus variant: MoH Kuwait reports 578 new cases, 2 deaths • Sharp drop in hospital, ICU occupancy By Nawara Fattahova positive after PCR tests were conducted upon arrival ago, authorities launched a vaccination campaign tions to 1,415,197. Sanad said the latest statistics on at Kuwait airport. using Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. bed occupancy at public hospitals and health institu- KUWAIT: Two Kuwaiti women who arrived from Additional genetic tests carried out found the two The ministry of health yesterday announced 578 tions show a drop in COVID-19 cases treated in hos- Britain have tested positive for a new COVID-19 women had contracted the new strain of the coron- new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, raising the pitals as well as a drop in cases in intensive care strain, the first discovery of the more contagious avirus, Sanad said. The ministry of health immediately total caseload to 158,822. Sanad also announced two units. “During a certain period last year, occupancy coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom and took all necessary measures including isolating the deaths in the same period, taking the death toll to of COVID-19 wards in hospitals reached above 50 several other countries, the health ministry two patients and placing them in quarantine. Sanad 950. Meanwhile, 53 patients are in ICUs on life sup- percent, but this has dropped to only 7 percent spokesman said yesterday. Abdullah Al-Sanad said urged the public to continue to observe strict health port, with total cases remaining under treatment at today. Occupancy of ICUs at all hospitals around the two women had undergone PCR tests in Britain precautions, especially wearing facemasks, washing 5,936. Medical authorities conducted 8,845 swab Kuwait had reached over 40 percent, but today it has that showed they were not infected, but they tested hands and staying away from gatherings. A month tests over the past 24 hours, taking overall examina- dropped to 10 percent only,” stressed Sanad. Sheikh Nawaf can either ask Sheikh Sabah to Consultations begin form the next Cabinet or name a new prime minister, and this is likely to happen before the weekend. Ghanem meanwhile called off the regular Assembly for PM; Assembly session scheduled for yesterday because he was informed by the government that no minister will session cancelled attend the session amid protests by opposition MPs. The speaker told the lawmakers who came to the By B Izzak chamber that based on the constitution and previ- ous practice, the presence of at least one minister is KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad a precondition for the session to be legal. A number Al-Jaber Al-Sabah yesterday began customary of opposition MPs challenged that there is no clear consultations with current and former Assembly text in the constitution or the Assembly’s internal speakers and prime ministers ahead of naming a charter that requires ministers to be present for the prime minister to form the new Cabinet. HH the Amir session to convene. received former speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun and Ghanem later told reporters that all speakers current speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem, in addition to since 1968 cancelled Assembly sessions when no former prime ministers HH Sheikh Nasser Al- minister showed up, adding that constitutional Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH Sheikh experts have approved this practice. He however Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. He also received HH said that opposition MPs can support a resolution Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, whose Cabinet by the Assembly to send this point to the constitu- KUWAIT: MP Hamad Al-Matar takes a selfie with fellow MPs after the National Assembly session resignation was accepted by the Amir on Monday. tional court to resolve the controversy. was adjourned yesterday due to the Cabinet’s resignation. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat bags, in a desperate search for some- News in brief Amid oil wells, thing to sell, repurpose or even eat. Across the road, an oil pump swings back and forth in this 180,000 illegals in Kuwait Syrians dig in resource-rich region controlled by US-backed Kurdish forces. An KUWAIT: As inspection campaigns are no armored vehicle flying the American longer carried out, the number of residency vio- trash to survive stars and stripes drives by on the lators in Kuwait has reached a record of asphalt. At the dump, a woman in a 180,000, Al-Rai Arabic daily reported yester- AL-MALIKIYAH, Syria: Plastic bot- scarf and light blue woolly hat hacks day. This is an increase of 38 percent from five tles, aluminum cans, clothes, some- away at a pile of fuming burnt rubbish. months ago, as very few expats have responded times spaghetti. When a tractor tows Another stuffs some flat bread into to amnesties to leave the country with the pos- in fresh rubbish at a dump in northeast a bag hanging around her waist. A sibility of returning with new visas. (See Page 3) Syria, men, women and children rush to find the best pickings. On the dry gloved hand reaches for the remainder plains outside the city of Al-Malikiyah, of a packet of spaghetti. Someone AL-MALIKIYA, Syria: Syrians sift through a garbage dump near an oilfield in a dozen people wrapped up against finds a pair of small black boots, while Qatar calls for talks with Iran the countryside of Malikiya on Jan 12, 2021. — AFP the cold rip open the black plastic Continued on Page 2 DOHA: Qatar has called for Gulf countries to hold talks with Iran, the foreign minister said in an interview aired yesterday. Sheikh Mohammed be inaugurated today, so she can finally visit her son she visited her 36-year-old son twice after he start- bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who has previously Mideast mothers for the first time in four years. Biden has pledged ed studying in Washington DC the year Syria’s war called for dialogue with Iran, told Bloomberg TV that, on his first day in office, he would reverse a broke out in 2011, once in 2015 and the last time in “this is also a desire that’s shared by other Gulf ban ordered by Donald Trump on travel to the late 2016. But after Trump took over the White Cooperation Council (GCC) countries”. — AFP count days to US United States for citizens of many mostly-Muslim House in 2017, he banned access to the United countries. “I’m counting the days until I get my next States to all travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, visas to see kids visa,” Idriss told AFP, sitting in her comfortable Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, igniting interna- Messi banned for two matches Damascus living room, surrounded by pictures of tional outrage and leading to domestic court rulings DAMASCUS: Syrian mother Dahouk Idriss says her far-flung children and late husband. against it. MADRID: Lionel Messi was handed a two- she can’t wait for US President-elect Joe Biden to The retired chemistry teacher in her sixties said Continued on Page 2 match ban yesterday following his first ever send- ing off for Barcelona. The Argentine forward was shown a red card at the end of Sunday’s 3-2 spells of one of the world’s hottest extra-time defeat to Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Oak trees take countries. Her plan is taking root in Super Cup final after lashing out at Asier her native Kurdistan. Villalibre. The six-time Ballon d’Or winner has In a pilot project late last year “we twice been sent off playing for Argentina. — AFP root in Iraqi planted 2,000 oak trees. And in the upcoming autumn we will plant Kurdistan 80,000,” said Rawanduzi, a hiker and Israelis raced in Dakar Rally rock climber. She has mobilized visi- ARBIL, Iraq: Delband Rawanduzi tors and shepherds who collect oak JERUSALEM: Israeli drivers participated in spoke softly to her oak seedlings, as if seeds from the mountains, which are the latest Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, their willing them to grow fast and repopu- then planted in two greenhouses manager said Monday. The FN Speed Team late forests in Iraqi Kurdistan deplet- donated by a private university in the took part in the 7,000-km race in the Saudi ed by war, illegal logging and fires. Kurdish regional capital of Arbil. desert with two drivers who hold both Belgian Over the next five years, the 26-year- Once the young seedlings grow old aims to plant one million oaks - into a saplings, they are re-planted in and Israeli nationalities, the team’s manager ARBIL, Iraq: Iraqi Kurd Delband Rawanduzi holds an oak sapling at a nurs- resilient trees that can endure both mountain areas selected by the Omer Pearl told AFP. — AFP ery on Jan 12, 2021. — AFP the cold of northern Iraq and the dry Continued on Page 2 2 Established 1961 Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Local Amir meets officials ahead of forming new government KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets National Assembly His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets former National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanem.