Kuwait International Airport will reopen at the beginning of August, authorities said, after an almost six-month closure to normal traffic due to the coronavirus. Civil aviation official Saad Al Utaibi told the official news agency on Thursday that commercial flights will resume on August 1. But he said the airport will be operating at 30 per cent capacity for six months. It will not process more than 10,000 passengers and daily flights will not exceed 100. Mr Utaibi said temperature sensors, disinfection equipment, coronavirus warning signs and glass barriers have been installed. Departing or arriving passengers must have approved coronavirus-free certification, and arriving passengers must install the "Shlonik" tracing app, he said. Only Kuwaiti nationals, their relatives and labourers have been allowed to enter the country since the airport closed to passenger traffic on March 13. A second-phase reopening, with 60 per cent capacity is due in February 2021, followed full capacity in August of next year. The government has confirmed that 48,000 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the country and that 359 died from the disease. Kuwait’s population is 3 million.