King Salman imposes curfew across Saudi Arabia to contain COVID-19

King Salman on Sunday issued an order imposing a curfew across Saudi Arabia from Monday evening to control the spread of the COVID-19 disease.

A royal court statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the curfew will start at 7 pm until 6 am every day for 21 days from the evening of March 23, 2020.

King Salman's order followed an announcement by the Health Ministry of 119 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising the total number in the kingdom to 511.

The order enjoins citizens and residents alike to stay in their homes during the curfew hours for their own safety.

The statement said the Ministry of Interior will undertake the necessary measures to implement the curfew, and all civil and military authorities are ordered to cooperate fully.

Excluded from the curfew order are employees of vital public and private sector industries whose work requires continued performance.

Also exempted are employees of the security, military and media sectors, and workers in the sensitive health and service sectors.

A subsequent statement issued by the Ministry of Interior and carried by SPA said those excluded from the curfew are workers from the vital industries and government services, including the sectors of food sector, health, media, transportation, e-commerce, accommodation, energy, financial services, telecom and water.

Numerous countries have adopted more stringent rules as the highly contagious novel coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China, had become pandemic.

As of Sunday, the total number of cases since December 2019 has reached 324,291, including 14,396 deaths.

Italy’s world-topping toll from the pandemic approached 5,500 as the Mediterranean country reported another 651 deaths, a day after it overtook China for the highest number of fatalities.