The world goes into lockdown with curfews and closures in the fight against coronavirus

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Updated 25 March 2020
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The world goes into lockdown with curfews and closures in the fight against coronavirus

  • Egypt declares a curfew for two weeks starting Wednesday
  • All UAE airports suspending all flights, except evacuation flights

DUBAI: Middle East countries continue to urge people to stay at home and follow social distancing rules as the global spread of coronavirus increases.

Saudi Arabia imposed a curfew, with violators facing up to 20 days jail and fines up to $2,665.

The United Arab Emirates closed public spaces, including malls, beaches, parks and restaurants. Meanwhile, delivery services will continue operating normally as they follow new safety practices.

Tuesday, March 24 (All times in GMT)

22:03 - US President Donald Trump said his administration’s decision to loosen restrictions related to the coronavirus and re-open the US economy would be based on facts and data but said the goal remained to do so by the Easter holiday in April.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that for the most part he did not expect to have to use the Defense Production Act but would do so as needed.

20:35 - The Dow soared to its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1933, after US lawmakers said they were close to a deal for an economic rescue package in response to the coronavirus outbreak, injecting optimism following the biggest selloff since the financial crisis.

19:21 - 1,657 people have been arrested across Jordan since a curfew, aimed at stemming the spread of coronavirus, came into effect on Saturday had been placed in quarantine centers run by the army, a security official said.
The government has warned that people caught breaking the rules would be quarantined for 14 days and could also face up to one year of jail time.
The kingdom reported 26 new cases of the COVID-19 illness on Tuesday, bringing the total number to 153 confirmed infections in the country of around 10 million people.

18:51 - France becomes fifth country to report more than 1,000 deaths from #coronavirus, with official tally now at 1,100 deaths (vs 860) - public health official.

17:40 - President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that he wants the coronavirus lockdown relaxed in the United States by mid-April, warning that keeping the measures in place could "destroy" the country.

"A lot of people agree with me. Our country -- it's not built to shut down," he said on Fox News. "You can destroy a country this way by closing it down. I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," Trump added. Easter is on April 12.

He also said he believed more people would die if the coronavirus restrictions were not lifted.

17:07 - Britain will open a new temporary hospital next week at the Excel exhibition center in London to treat as many as 4,000 people, health minister Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.
The UK is also looking for 250,000 volunteers to help the National Health Service (NHS) and vulnerable people hit by the coronavirus crisis, Hancock added.
17:05 - Officials in Italy announced on Tuesday that the death toll from the virus in the country had risen by 743 to 6,820. Its number of cases now stands at 69,176.

16:30 - Canada reports 2,187 coronavirus cases and 25 deaths as of Tuesday, the government said.

16:30 - Tunisian police arrested more than 400 people for breaking a night-time curfew imposed to fight the spread of coronavirus, the authorities said Monday.

Around 30 of the 408 transgressors who were arrested remained in custody, while the others were released after a warning, Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi told reporters.

15:15 - India to go under total lockdown as of Tuesday evening for 21 days, PM Narendra Modi said in a television address. It means more than 2.6 billion people worldwide are being urged to observe a lockdown.

15:00 - Climate activist Greta Thunberg, who claims she "likely" had and recovered from the coronavirus, said on Tuesday the swift and far-ranging economic and social shifts being brought in to stem the coronavirus pandemic showed that the rapid action needed to curb climate change was also possible.

14:15 - WATCH: This from today in Amioun Koura in northern Lebanon, where the Lebanese Army were calling on people to stay at home as part of the country's coronavirus preventative measures.

13:35 - Amazon's India unit on Tuesday said it will temporarily stop taking orders for non-essential products and disable their deliveries in a bid to fulfil critical needs of its customers at a time much of the country is under lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

13:20 - The UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen appeals for a complete and immediate nationwide cease-fire throughout Syria to enable an all-out effort to combat the virus.

13:15 – Iraq said that coronavirus cases have risen to 316.

12:55 – Global airlines urged governments on Tuesday to speed up bailouts to rescue the air transport industry as they doubled their estimate of 2020 revenue losses from the coronavirus crisis to more than $250 billion. “We clearly need massive action very quickly and urgently,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the International Air Transport Association, told reporters on a conference call.

12:40 – The Saudi Ministry of Health has reported 205 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 767, with the Kingdom reporting its first death yesterday.

12:35 – Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has called on citizens to fully comply with government measures to confront coronavirus, adding the decisions adopted by the Egyptian government were urgent to prevent spread of the virus.

12:30 – Oman has suspended all internal and international flights as of March 29, except cargo operations and Musandam flights, state TV reported.

12:20 – Sudan has recorded the third case of coronavirus infection.

12:15 – Egypt has extended the suspension of air traffic for another two weeks, starting from April 1.

12:15 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed on Tuesday that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would be postponed to 2021 due to coronavirus pandemic, despite holidng out and saying the event would go ahead just a few days before. READ THE STORY

12:10 – Tunisia has recorded 25 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 114.

12:00 – Kuwait is imposing mandatory quarantine on nationals returning from abroad for a period of 14 days.

11:55 – Bahrain has reported the death of a 65-year-old citizen due to coronavirus, bringing the death toll to four.

11:55 – Gaza is closing all mosques from tomorrow morning for two weeks.

11:50 – Saudi banking firm Samba said only 40 percent of Samba Group employees currently work from the offices.

11:40 – The number of confirmed cases in Switzerland of infections with the new coronavirus has risen to 8,836 people by midday on Tuesday from the 8,060 reported on Monday, the Federal Office of Public Health said. The number of deaths rose to 86 from 66.

11:30 – Egypt has declared curfew from 7p.m. to 6a.m. for two weeks starting Wednesday to counter the spread of coronavirus. Transportation will stop from 7p.m. to 6a.m. starting tomorrow, while all commercial stores will close from 5p.m. until 6a.m., the Egyptian prime minister said, and there would be a complete closure of commercial premises on Saturdays and Fridays. READ THE STORY

10:45 – Another 514 people have died in Spain over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 2,696, as the number of infections surged towards 40,000, the government said Tuesday.
The number of people who have tested positive rose by nearly 20 percent to 39,673, the health ministry said, while the death toll represented an increase of 23.5 percent over the figures from Monday.

10:30 – The number of cases of coronavirus in Italy is probably 10 times higher than the official tally of almost 64,000, the head of the agency that is collating the data said on Tuesday. Latest figures show 6,077 people have died from the infection in barely a month, making Italy the worst-affected country in the world, with close to double the number of fatalities in China, where the virus emerged last year.

10:30 – A World Health Organisation spokeswoman said she was seeing “very large acceleration” in coronavirus case numbers in the US, says it has potential to be center of outbreak.

09:55 – UAE’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports are suspending all passenger flights as of 11:59p.m. local time on March 26 for two weeks with the exception of evacuation flights.

09:45 – Iran’s health ministry official said 122 died in past 24 hours, bringing the number of deaths to 1,934, and 24,811 have been infected with coronavirus. 

09:40 – A Lebanese man who was taxi pooling burned his car on Tuesday morning at the Sports City area in Beirut to protest security forces’ strict enforcement of new transport regulations put in place to control the spread of coronavirus. The driver, who was earlier fined for violating the 1-passenger-per-taxi limit, sustained burns and was transported to the hospital.




A taxi driver burned his car to protest Lebanon’s strict implementation of coronavirus-related travel restrictions. (Supplied)

09:10 – The Philippine health ministry reported 90 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 552 and two new deaths, raising the number to 35.

09:05 – Restaurants in Vietnam’s business hub, Ho Chi Minh City, must close until March 31 to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, the city’s ruling body said on Tuesday.

08:50 – Al Arabiya TV news channel has quoted unnamed sources suggesting Egypt could be about to impose curfew and further social restrictions in an attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus. 

08:05 – Kuwait’s Health Ministry recorded two new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and nine recoveries, bring the total of recoveries to 39.




Kuwaiti health ministry workers scan employees and visitors of the ministries complex on March 4, 2020. (AFP)

07:55 – The number of people in Israel infected with the coronavirus has increased to 1,656, of whom 31 are in serious condition, Sky News Arabia reported, quoting the country’s Ministry of Health.

07:30 – The executive vice president of Eni for the Middle East has confirmed that the energy company was reviewing all energy projects in the region due to market conditions, Al Arabiya reported.

07:15 – Thailand’s prime minister said his government was declaring a state of emergency to control the coronavirus outbreak. Thailand’s cabinet on Tuesday also approved additional stimulus measures worth 107 billion baht ($3.25 billion) in a bid to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. READ THE STORY

06:55 – Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said 1.2 million government employees out of a total of 2.5 million were not going to work as part of measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

06:35 – Bahrain’s finance minister Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa said that the government will implement a 4.3 billion dinars ($11.41 billion) package as soon as possible at the highest priority, Bahrain state TV reported. READ OUR REPORT

05:55 – Oman Ministry of Health registered 18 new cases of coronavirus, bringinf total cases to 84, according to Sky News Arabia.

05:35 – The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 27,436, deaths to 114, Robert Koch Institute monitoring shows.




Public order officers walk through an deserted pedestrian zone in Cologne, western Germany, on March 23, 2020. (AFP)

05:10 – China’s central Hubei province, where the deadly coronavirus first emerged late last year, is to lift travel curbs after two months under lockdown, local officials said Tuesday.

Healthy residents will be allowed to leave the province from midnight Tuesday, while Wuhan, the initial origin of the outbreak, will lift restrictions from April 8.

05:05The Philippine economy could contract this year as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, the economic planning agency said in a report made public on Tuesday.

Growth this year could be between -0.6 percent to +4.3 percent without mitigating measures, the agency said, adding the estimates assumed that the adverse impact of the fast-spreading virus will be felt until June.

04:25 – Police in India’s capital broke up the longest-running protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s citizenship law on Tuesday, citing a ban on public gatherings because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Dozens of people, many of them women, have been staging a sit-in protest since early December on a street in the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood, which has become a focal point for opposition to the law seen as discriminating against Muslims. READ THE STORY

04:20 – Italy reported a second successive drop in daily deaths and infections from a coronavirus that has nevertheless claimed more than 6,000 lives in a month. The Mediterranean country has now seen its daily fatalities come down from a world record 793 on Saturday to 651 on Sunday and 601 on Monday. The number of new declared infections fell from 6,557 on Saturday to 4,789 on Monday.

03:20 – Thailand has recorded 106 new cases of coronavirus and three more deaths, a health official said on Tuesday. The country now has 827 cases and 4 fatalities since the outbreak began.

02:30 – Macau will ban all mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan residents who have travelled overseas from entering the city from Wednesday.

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02:20 – Australia’s most populous state recorded its highest daily rise in coronavirus cases on Tuesday and officials warned of harsher penalties for anybody violating self-isolation orders as the country stepped closer to a full lockdown.

New South Wales state identified 149 new coronavirus cases overnight, bringing the state total to 818, and the national toll to 1,886 cases. The national death toll remained unchanged at seven.

Australia has registered significantly lower rates of the virus compared to elsewhere in the world, but the infection rate has quickened in recent days.

02:15 – The Philippine health ministry confirmed 39 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 501.




A volunteer disinfects a vehicle in Manila on March 20, 2020, after the government imposed an enhanced community quarantine against the rising coronavirus infections. (AFP)

01:50 – The Chinese government said that all overseas arrivals would be subject to centralized quarantine and nucleic acid test from March 25, official media reported.

01:35 – US Olympic organisers joined calls for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, while the International Olympic Committee, according to member Dick Pound, has decided to delay the event, likely for a year.

01:20 – South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its total infections to 9,037, the Yonhap news agency said, citing health authorities.

Monday, March 23 (All times in GMT)

22:20 – Mexico had 367 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country on Monday, up from 316 the day before, deputy health secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell said, with a total of four deaths.
Previously the country had reported two deaths.

21:10 – Yemen’s universities and schools will be suspended from March 23 until May 30 to curb the spread of coronavirus, Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said.

19:50 – Jordan confirmed 15 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total to 127.

19:25 – Morocco has seen an increase in cases to 143.


Tunisian women herb harvesters struggle with drought

Updated 5 sec ago
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Tunisian women herb harvesters struggle with drought

  • Tunisia produces around 10,000 tonnes of aromatic and medicinal herbs each year, according to official figures

TUNIS: On a hillside in Tunisia’s northwestern highlands, women scour a sun-scorched field for the wild herbs they rely on for their livelihoods, but droughts are making it ever harder to find the precious plants.
Yet the harvesters say they have little choice but to struggle on, as there are few opportunities in a country hit hard by unemployment, inflation and high living costs.
“There is a huge difference between the situation in the past and what we are living now,” said Mabrouka Athimni, who heads a local collective of women herb harvesters named “Al-Baraka.”

Mabrouka Athimni, who heads a local collective of women herb harvesters named "Al Baraka" ("Blessing") shows oil extracted from plants in a laboratory in Tbainia village near the city of Ain Drahem, in the north west of Tunisia on November 6, 2024. (AFP)

“We’re earning half, sometimes just a third, of what we used to.”

SPEEDREAD

Yet the harvesters say they have little choice but to struggle on, as there are few opportunities in a country hit hard by unemployment and high living costs.

Tunisia produces around 10,000 tonnes of aromatic and medicinal herbs each year, according to official figures.
Rosemary accounts for more than 40 percent of essential oil exports, mainly destined for French and American markets.
For the past 20 years, Athimni’s collective has supported numerous families in Tbainia, a village near the city of Ain Draham in a region with much higher poverty rates than the national average.
Women, who make up around 70 percent of the agricultural workforce, are the main breadwinners for their households in Tbainia.
Tunisia is in its sixth year of drought and has seen its water reserves dwindle, as temperatures have soared past 50 degrees Celsius in some areas during the summer.
The country has 36 dams, mostly in the northwest, but they are currently just 20 percent full — a record low in recent decades.
The Tbainia women said they usually harvested plants like eucalyptus, rosemary and mastic year-round, but shrinking water resources and rare rainfall have siphoned oil output.
“The mountain springs are drying up, and without snow or rain to replenish them, the herbs yield less oil,” said Athimni.
Mongia Soudani, a 58-year-old harvester and mother of three, said her work was her household’s only income. She joined the collective five years ago.

“We used to gather three or four large sacks of herbs per harvest,” she said. “Now, we’re lucky to fill just one.”

Forests in Tunisia cover 1.25 million hectares, about 10 percent of them in the northwestern region.

Wildfires fueled by drought and rising temperatures have ravaged these woodlands, further diminishing the natural resources that women like Soudani depend on.

In the summer of last year, wildfires destroyed around 1,120 hectares near Tbainia.

“Parts of the mountain were consumed by flames, and other women lost everything,” Soudani recalled.

To adapt to some climate-driven challenges, the women received training from international organizations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, to preserve forest resources.

Still, Athimni struggles to secure a viable income.

“I can’t fulfil my clients’ orders anymore because the harvest has been insufficient,” she said.

The collective has lost a number of its customers as a result, she said.

 


Sudan’s RSF says seizes back control of key Darfur base from army allies

Updated 13 min 57 sec ago
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Sudan’s RSF says seizes back control of key Darfur base from army allies

  • Dozens of RSF soldiers were killed, vehicles destroyed and supplies captured as they captured the base, they said

DUBAI/CAIRO: Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized back control of a key logistical base in North Darfur on Sunday, the paramilitary group said, a day after it was taken by rival forces allied with Sudan’s army.
The conflict between the RSF and the army erupted in April 2023, and some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in North Darfur as the army and allied Joint Forces — a collection of former rebel groups — battle to maintain a last foothold in the wider Darfur region.
The Joint Forces and the army said in statements they had taken control on Saturday of the Al-Zurug base, which the RSF has used during the 20-month war as a logistical base to channel supplies from over the nearby borders with Chad and Libya.
Dozens of RSF soldiers were killed, vehicles destroyed and supplies captured as they captured the base, they said.
The incident could inflame ethnic tensions between the Arab tribes that form the base of the RSF and the Zaghawa tribe that forms most of the Joint Forces, analysts say.
The RSF accused Joint Forces fighters of killing civilians and burning down nearby homes and public amenities during the raid.
“The Joint Forces carried out ethnic cleansing against innocent civilians in Al-Zurug and intentionally killed children, women, and the elderly and burnt and destroyed wells and markets and homes and the health center and schools,” it said in a statement on Sunday.
The Joint Forces said the base had been used by the RSF as a “launching point for barbaric operations against civilians” in areas including Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state and one of the most active frontlines in the fighting.
Since fighting picked up in Al-Fashir in mid-April, at least 782 civilians have been killed, according to a UN human rights report, the result of attacks via “intense” heavy artillery and suicide drones from the RSF and airstrikes and artillery strikes by the army.
On Sunday, activists from the Al-Fashir Resistance Committee reported an onslaught of at least 30 missiles fired on different parts of the city.
Seizing control of the city would bolster the RSF’s attempt to install a parallel government to the national government in Port Sudan, analysts say.

 


Jordanian minister criticizes ‘sensational’ reporting of Middle East events

Updated 19 min 37 sec ago
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Jordanian minister criticizes ‘sensational’ reporting of Middle East events

  • Mohammad Momani stressed the importance of obtaining verified information
  • He said media freedom should not be misused to distort regional events

LONDON: Jordanian Minister of Government Communication Mohammad Momani emphasized the importance of professionalism and accuracy in reporting Middle Eastern events during a meeting with local, Arab and international media representatives on Sunday.

Momani said that a few international media outlets “sensationalize” regional events at the cost of accuracy, arguing that “this does not serve the public and undermines professional standards.”

He discussed with media representatives the importance of obtaining verified information to ensure accuracy, serve public opinion and uphold the right to knowledge, the official Jordanian news agency, Petra, reported.

Over the past year, some Western media outlets reporting on the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip and the conflict with Lebanon, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, have investigated some details in the stories they ran.

CNN investigated a recent video report that captures the moment a Syrian prisoner was freed from a secretive prison in Damascus. Critics have claimed that the report was staged and that the man featured in the CNN video was not who he claimed to be.

Momani said that media freedom should not be misused to distort regional circumstances or promote political and ideological agendas, Petra added.

He called on media outlets in Jordan to report on the country’s political and security realities professionally, accurately representing the event in all its aspects while rejecting false or misleading narratives.

Momani said that the Jordanian government was dedicated to transparency and communication with media representatives, including Arab, international and local outlets.

He praised the professional reporting on regional events by Jordanian state agencies and commended the country’s balanced political stance and commitment to stability.

Jordan’s Ministry of Government Communication regularly holds meetings and briefings to enhance communication with media representatives in Jordan.


Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House’s Sullivan says

Updated 8 min 19 sec ago
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Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House’s Sullivan says

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration is concerned that a weakened Iran could build a nuclear weapon, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, adding that he was briefing President-elect Donald Trump’s team on the risk.
Iran has suffered setbacks to its regional influence after Israel’s assaults on its allies, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, followed by the fall of Iran-aligned Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, have reduced Tehran’s conventional military capabilities, Sullivan told CNN.
“It’s no wonder there are voices (in Iran) saying, ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now ... Maybe we have to revisit our nuclear doctrine’,” Sullivan said.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has expanded uranium enrichment since Trump, in his 2017-2021 presidential term, pulled out of a deal between Tehran and world powers that put restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.
Sullivan said that there was a risk that Iran might abandon its promise not to build nuclear weapons.
“It’s a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It’s a risk that I’m personally briefing the incoming team on,” Sullivan said, adding that he had also consulted with US ally Israel.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, could return to his hard-line Iran policy by stepping up sanctions on Iran’s oil industry. Sullivan said Trump would have an opportunity to pursue diplomacy with Tehran, given Iran’s “weakened state.”
“Maybe he can come around this time, with the situation Iran finds itself in, and actually deliver a nuclear deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the long term,” he said.


Netanyahu says Israel will continue to act against the Houthis

Updated 22 December 2024
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Netanyahu says Israel will continue to act against the Houthis

  • On Thursday, Israeli jets launched a series of strikes against energy and port infrastructure in Yemen
  • Response to hundreds of missile and drone attacks launched by Houthis since start of Gaza war

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel would continue acting against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, whom he accused of threatening world shipping and the international order, and called on Israelis to be steadfast.
“Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran’s axis of evil, so we will act against the Houthis,” he said in a video statement a day after a missile fired from Yemen fell in the Tel Aviv area, causing a number of mild injuries.
On Thursday, Israeli jets launched a series of strikes against energy and port infrastructure in Yemen in a move officials said was a response to hundreds of missile and drone attacks launched by the Houthis since the start of the Gaza war 14 months ago.
On Saturday, the US military said it conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by Houthis in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
Netanyahu, strengthened at home by the Israeli military’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army’s strategic weapons, said Israel would act with the United States.
“Therefore, we will act with strength, determination and sophistication. I tell you that even if it takes time, the result will be the same,” he said.
The Houthis have launched repeated attacks on international shipping in waters near Yemen since November 2023, in support of the Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.