Regional round-up
● Saudi Arabia reported 4,233 new Covid-19 infections yesterday – the kingdom's highest daily total so far. Around 40% of the new cases are in the capital, Riyadh, and according to the health ministry they were found mainly "among young people who may not have been...
Blog archive: All
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15th June 2020
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14th June 2020Yemen's health system is "overwhelmed and collapsing" as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, the UN body that coordinates relief in emergencies and natural disasters has warned. People with symptoms are often not receiving health care in Yemen "due to a lack of resources or the inability...
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13th June 2020According to health ministry figures only a couple of hundred people have been infected by the Covid-19 coronavirus in Sudan's Darfur region but reports from this remote and troubled part of the country tell a different story. For several weeks now, unusually large numbers of people have...
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12th June 2020More than half a million people in the Middle East and North Africa have now been infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus according to official figures, and the number is increasing by about 12,000 every day. Official figures don't tell the whole story, though. Nobody knows how many cases have...
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11th June 2020With no new cases reported during the last seven days, Tunisia looks like becoming the first Arab country to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. This is good news for the tourism industry, raising hopes that European holidaymakers will soon be flocking once again to its beaches. By global...
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10th June 2020The UN's latest report on the coronavirus situation in Libya makes grim reading. Just about everything that could go wrong is going wrong. None of it is helped by the ongoing conflict between the UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNA) in Tripoli and Field Marshall Haftar's forces based...
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9th June 2020Syria has imposed a lockdown on the town of Ras al-Ma'ara following a cornavirus outbreak there which has so far resulted in 20 people becoming infected. This is the largest cluster of related cases reported by the Syrian authorities since the pandemic began. According to government figures...
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8th June 2020Saudi Arabia's Covid-19 epidemic passed two unwelcome milestones at the weekend when the daily number of new cases rose above 3,000 for the first time and the overall total of confirmed cases crossed the 100,000 mark. During the last couple of months the kingdom has reported more new infections...
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7th June 2020Israel has seen a rise in Covid-19 infections since easing its lockdown, raising fears that a second wave of the epidemic may be on the way. During May, most restrictions were lifted in stages, thousands returned to work and the schools reopened (though still with some...
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6th June 2020Iraq reported 1,006 new Covid-19 cases on Friday – by far the highest number since the epidemic began. Throughout March and April Iraq's official figures showed the virus spreading surprisingly slowly and it wasn't until mid-May that the daily count of new cases rose above 100. Towards...
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5th June 2020Life in Jordan will look much more normal from Saturday. Cafes, restaurants, hotels, mosques and churches previously closed to due coronavirus will be allowed to reopen along with sports clubs, nurseries and tourist sites. Shops will be permitted to stay open until 11pm and the night curfew...
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4th June 2020During the past week confirmed Covid-19 cases in Oman have risen by 62% and now total more than 13,000. On Wednesday alone, the Gulf state recorded 738 new infections. Health minister Ahmed al-Saidi blames the increase on people socialising during the Islamic month of Ramadan (24 April-23...
