Saudi Arabia imposes dusk-to-dawn curfew to curb coronavirus spread

King Salman of Saudi Arabia had declared a nationwide curfew from dusk-to-dawn in an effort to combat the deadly coronavirus. The curfew begins from March 23 and is the latest in a series of restrictions adopted by Saudi Arabia. According to reports, the curfew is from 7pm till 6am and will be imposed for 21 days.

511 cases in Saudi Arabia

The curfew comes after Saudi Arabia announced on March 22 that the number of reported coronavirus cases had risen to 511, which is the highest number of infected in the Gulf. As per reports, health officials and security and military personnel will be exempt from the curfew. King Salaman on March 19 said that it would be a long and hard fight against the virus. Saudi Arabia faces the double blow of the lockdown and the crashing prices of oil.

According to reports, cinemas, malls and restaurants in the Arab world’s largest economy were closed. Saudi Arabia has halted flights and even suspended the year-round Umrah pilgrimage as it steps up efforts to contain the deadly virus.

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Recently Saudi Arabia announced a stimulus package worth 120 Saudi billion riyals ($32 billion) in order to support the business that was affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Saudi Arabia has also suspended prayers in all its mosques except in its two holiest sites, in Mecca and Medina, a sensitive move in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom.

The drop in demand for oil due to the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus has caused oil prices to plunge to multi-year lows, oil revenue is the mainstay of the Saudi government’s revenue. There have been more than 1,300 coronaviruses infected in the Gulf region. Majority of the cases initially were travellers who had recently returned from Iran.  The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has claimed more than 14,703lives across the world and has infected over 339,182 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019.

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