Kuwait parliament calls for cancelling flights to Egypt

A Kuwait Airways Boeing B777 aircraft prepares to land at Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait City on 13 March 2019 [Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/ Getty]

A Kuwait Airways Boeing B777 aircraft prepares to land at Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait City on 13 March 2019 [Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/ Getty]March 4, 2020 at 4:34 am

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Concerns have raised in Kuwait about due to a number of people arriving from Egypt, which prompted members in the Kuwaiti parliament to demand “an immediate halt to flights from and to Egypt.”

Kuwaiti’s interior ministry recently announced a halt to the issuance of all visas to the Egyptian community “until further notice” following the spread of the Coronavirus.

The MPs said that the decision was “in line with the precautionary plans to confront the spread of the Coronavirus.”

Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al-Hashem said the decision to stop issuing visas for Egyptians was a “correct decision, in light of the circumstances the country is going through in the face of the Coronavirus epidemic.” She demanded, “all expatriates who spent their holidays in Egypt not to come back to Kuwait during this period.”

Read: Egypt deports Palestinian writer Bisan Al-Adwan

“If Egypt does not want to announce the number of infected cases, that’s their business, but we must protect our country and our people from this epidemic,” Al-Hashem was quoted by Al-Qabas as saying.

The coronavirus first appeared in China for the first time on 12 December in the city of Wuhan, but Beijing officially revealed it in mid-January. It has sounded the global alarm with China reporting 2,592 deaths from the outbreak on Monday with over 77,000 confirmed cases.

Outside mainland China, the coronavirus has spread to more than 25 other countries including the US, the UK, Singapore, France, Russia, Spain and India. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak an international health emergency.

On Monday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that the Middle East airlines had incurred $100 million in losses following far-east flights’ cancellations over the virus spread.

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