JEDDAH – The world was on the brink of global lockdown on Sunday as country after country imposed tough new travel restrictions, quarantined visitors or closed their borders completely in the face of the greatest threat to human health in more than a century.
Authorities in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas were forced to appeal for calm as the death toll from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, reached more than 5,800, with at least 156,000 people infected worldwide.
New travel, flight and quarantine regulations were declared in Australia, Austria, Argentina, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Lebanon, Mexico the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain and Turkey, added to the countries that have already tightened their borders and curbed freedom of movement.
They include Saudi Arabia, which has taken the most comprehensive steps among the Gulf states by halting international passenger flights, canceling Umrah pilgrimages and locking down the eastern Qatif region.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday ordered the closure of malls, restaurants, coffee shops and public parks and gardens. Supermarkets, pharmacies and food delivery are exempt.
There are 118 confirmed cases of the virus in Saudi Arabia. Three patients have made a full recovery and are in good health, with the third discharged on Sunday from Dammam Medical Complex.
In Lebanon, President Michel Aoun declared a medical state of emergency, and closed the border with Syria except for fruit and vegetable deliveries. “Each of us is called upon to continue his work, from home, in the way he sees appropriate,” Aoun said in a TV address. Banks are expected to close until March 29.
Security forces were deployed on Beirut’s corniche to disperse crowds.
Elsewhere, Turkey quarantined 10,000 pilgrims who had returned from Saudi Arabia, Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem was closed indefinitely, and Palestinian officials said President Mahmoud Abbas, 85, who has age-related health issues, was no longer receiving guests.
Iran, where most Middle East virus cases originate and 724 people have died, admitted on Sunday that the pandemic could overwhelm its health care system.
“If the trend continues, there will not be enough capacity,” said Ali Reza Zali, the health official leading the campaign against the outbreak.
Impact of Weather on COVID-19 Not Confirmed: Experts
The impact of weather on coronavirus infection rates has not been confirmed, said Cao Wei, Deputy Director and Associate Chief Physician of Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital at a press conference on Monday.
Mainland China reported an overall drop in new coronavirus infections on Sunday, but major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai continued to wrestle with cases involving infected travelers arriving from abroad.
Saudi Arabia Suspends All Government Work
Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended government work and ordered public-sector workers to stay home for 16 days in the Kingdom’s latest measures against the spread of coronavirus.
Only those working in health, security and the military are exempted from the decision to stop people attending the work place.
Earlier, the Kingdom closed malls and restaurants as well as shops, coffee shops, parks and gardens. Only pharmacies and food supply activities such as supermarkets and hypermarkets would remain open, provided that they sterilize shopping carts after each use by their clients.
Among other steps taken, Saudi Arabia has requested companies to quarantine expatriate workers for 14 days following their arrival. The Kingdom also suspended the gathering people in parks and at beaches.
On Sunday the health ministry posted a video of minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah asking for the public’s cooperation in four key areas to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
he measures come as the Kingdom announced 15 new cases, taking the overall number to 118.
They include a Filipino and an Indonesian who were in contact with a previously reported case and quarantined in Riyadh, the health ministry said.
Five other cases had been in contact with another known case and have been quarantined in Qatif.
Another case was a Spanish resident who had arrived from Spain. And two women citizens who had arrived back in the Kingdom from the UK and Spain.
Other cases had arrived from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, the UK and Switzerland.
Three patients have made a full recovery and are in good health, with the third discharged on Sunday from Dammam Medical Complex.
The new measures follow a number of steps taken by Saudi Arabia, which are among some of the most comprehensive among the Gulf states. They include halting international passenger flights, canceling Umrah pilgrimages and locking down the eastern Qatif region.
Iran Screens 10 Million For Coronavirus Symptoms
Iran’s Health Ministry says the country has screened more than 10 million people for the new coronavirus symptoms as it goes all out against the outbreak.
Speaking on Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi said the screening had been carried out over a span of four days.
In all, 900 people were hospitalized among those who tested positive for the virus, the official said.
Raeisi warned that visiting hospitals raises the risk of infection to 40 percent, advising people to register their symptoms via the instead salamat.gov.ir online service.
People potentially requiring hospitalization will be provided with relevant instructions by the ministry’s experts who will call them, he added.
The official also commended high participation in the screening program in northern Gilan, which houses a large concentration of virus cases, saying around 76 percent of the province’s population had already been screened.
Raeisi called the project the least costly and most accessible way of breaking the chain of infection. He also advised the public to remain home, saying it is the only way to prevent the virus from spreading further.
The new virus, a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province late last year. It has killed nearly 5,800 people globally, and infected over 153,000 others, according to the World Health Organization.
In Iran, 13,938 people have been infected, 4,790 have recovered, and 726 have lost their lives to the infection.
‘Iran will conquer sanctions, coronavirus’
Head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht on Sunday strongly criticized the United States for its illegal and unilateral sanctions against the Iranian people amid the outbreak.
He called the the Trump administration’s attitude “adversarial and inhumane,” noting that Washington continues to impose new sanctions on the Iranian nation, while at the same time, it is falsely offering help.
The Americans “are not even abandoning their medical sanctions against Iran under these tough circumstances,” Nikbakht said, adding the US does not even allow Iran to sell its oil in order to buy medicine.
Nevertheless, Iran stands tall in the face of all the vicissitudes and is confident it will defeat the sanctions and the coronavirus, he said.
The US reinstated its sanctions against Iran in May 2018 after leaving a UN-endorsed nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic and five other countries.
Tehran sued Washington at the International Court of Justice, which ruled that the US should lift its sanctions on humanitarian supplies.
The US claims it does not get in the way of food and medicine exports to Iran, but the Islamic Republic says Washington has been creating problems for the Swiss humanitarian channel that is aimed at enabling the transfer of commodities.
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