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| Riyadh, Medina & Mecca Locked Down |
#15,137
Saudi Arabia, which has lived under the constant threat of MERS-CoV for the past 8 years, has been relatively quick to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They restricted Visitors & Umrah Pilgrims From COVID-19 Hit Countries nearly a month ago, and a week later banned their own residents from performing the pilgrimage to Mecca.
On Monday of this week, the Saudi government ordered a nationwide dusk-till-dawn (7 pm until 6 am) 21-day curfew.While KSA has seen a slow rise in COVID-19 cases over the past 3 weeks, yesterday, the MOH announced a one-day jump of over over 200 cases - and the first death - raising the Kingdom's total to 767 cases.
Today, via a Royal Decree, Saudi Arabia will implement a quarantine of 3 major municipalities - the Holy cities of Mecca & Medina, and the Capital city Riyadh - and will prohibit in-country travel between the 13 provinces, starting on Thursday.
The quarantining of large cities, and the imposition of internal travel restrictions, are aggressive steps that we've only seen taken in a few hard-hit regions (Hubei Province, Iran & parts of Italy).
General / Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques agrees to take more precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the new Coronavirus
Wednesday, August 20, 2020/03/25
Riyadh 01 Shaaban 1441 H 25, 2020
Based on the keenness of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, May God bless him, on the health and safety of citizens and residents, and based on the concerned authorities' offer of the need for more precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the new Coronavirus, he agreed to take the following measures:
- First: It is forbidden for residents of the 13 regions of the Kingdom to leave or move to another area.
- Secondly, it is forbidden to enter and exit the following cities (Riyadh, Mecca and Medina) according to the limits set by the concerned party.
- Third: It works from the time of (3) afternoon from Thursday 2/8/1441 H, 26/3/2020 until the end of the curfew period specified by the royal order on 27/7/1441 H.
- Fourth: The prohibition of movement does not include groups that have already been excluded from the curfew, bearing in mind that the exception is in the smallest range and in accordance with the procedures and controls established by the concerned party.
- Fifth: The start time of the curfew is provided until 3 p.m. in the following cities (Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina), and to the concerned authority based on the proposal of the Ministry of Health to increase curfew hours, or curfew throughout the day in those cities or other cities, provinces and regions, and begins work on this item from Thursday 2/8/1441 h corresponding to 26/3/2020.
Finished "13:01 PM0061
