Municipalities in Saudi Arabia's major cities said on Sunday that malls, restaurants, coffee shops and public parks would close to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday, the first death from the disease in the Gulf was reported in Bahrain after a 65-year-old woman with a pre-existing medical condition died. Visitors to the country, which has reported 214 cases of coronavirus so far, are being screened on arrival and anyone coming to the country is expected to self-isolate with 14 days.
In Saudi Arabia, shops and children's play areas will also close but supermarkets, pharmacies and food delivery are not affected.
تعلن #أمانة_جدة عن إغلاق جميع المجمعات التجارية والمولات المغلقة وإيقاف جميع الأنشطة داخلها بما فيها المطاعم وأماكن اللعب للأطفال بإستثناء محلات السوبر ماركت والصيدلية إن وجدت داخلها، كأجراء احترازي للحد من انتشار #فايروس_كورونا pic.twitter.com/Wax4D55XfR
— أمانة محافظة جدة (@JeddahAmanah) March 15, 2020
Local media said the measures would apply across the kingdom, where 103 Covid-19 infections have been diagnosed. A diner in Riyadh told Reuters the restaurant in which she had been sitting closed about 45 minutes before the announcement was made.
On Sunday, the kingdom unveiled a 50 billion riyal (Dh48.9bn) stimulus package to shore up its private sector and offset the coronavirus's impact on the economy.
It had also suspended all international flights for two weeks. Qatar and Kuwait have taken the same precaution, closing their borders for the next fortnight and shutting restaurants and entertainment venues. In Qatar, only cargo and transit flights will be allowed to land from Wednesday onwards.
Authorities also ordered a ban on all public transport in the country.
Doha, where 401 cases have been recorded, also announced measures to support its economy, which include offering $20.5 billion in financial incentives to the private sector.
Eight new cases of the coronavirus were reported in Kuwait on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 112, state news agency Kuna said. A shipment of up to 400,000 instruments to detect the disease will arrive in the country on Wednesday, while 1.5 million masks have been imported to boost dwindling supplies, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
On Monday, three patients in Kuwait recovered after being sick with the disease, which has reached more than 1,000 recorded cases in the Gulf - many of them linked to returnees from Iran, where infection tally now tops 14,000 confirmed cases, with at east 724 people known to have died from the diease.
Worldwide, the number of people killed in the coronavirus pandemic reached more than 5,800 on Sunday, with more than 157,000 infected, while almost 75,900 have recovered.
