By Tommy Hilton

and Tuqa Khalid

DUBAI -- Anyone caught breaking the coronavirus curfew in Kuwait will be jailed for up to three years and fined 10,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($32,000) in line with new laws, according to the country’s deputy prime minister on Sunday.

Kuwait established an 11-hour curfew from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Saturday aimed at limiting public gatherings where coronavirus is spread via human-to-human contact. There were 176 confirmed coronavirus cases in Kuwait as of Saturday.

The announcement of the penalties for breaching the curfew was made by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh via the country’s KUNA national news agency.

Al-Saleh previously announced the curfew in a press conference.

He said the Civil Defense Committee would be issuing identification cards for people working in vital sectors so they could move during the curfew.

The halting of work in government and private companies, which was set to end on March 26, has also been extended another two weeks.

The government had warned last week of not shying away from implementing stricter measures in the fight against the coronavirus if the public did not adhere to the issued guidelines and laws.

“The option to impose countrywide curfew or extradite some lawless expatriate workers remains to be a final resort in case the health instructions are not heeded,” Al-Saleh said in a statement to Kuwait TV last Monday. -- Al Arabiya English