Oman extends night closure of commercial activities until April 3

Muscat: Oman extends night closure of commercial activities until April 3

The Supreme Committee in charge of discussing the mechanism for dealing with developments resulting from the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid 19) held a meeting this morning under the chairmanship of His Excellency Mr. Hammoud bin Faisal Al Busaidi, Minister of Interior, in the presence of their Highnesses and Excellencies members of the Committee, at the General Office of the Ministry of Interior to follow up on the developments of this pandemic, And measures to prevent it and ways to avoid its spread, and deal with its various effects.

Within its continuous sessions held to follow up the recent development of Covid-19 in the Sultanate, the Supreme Committee has seen the presentation of the technical health team on the epidemiological status of the novel coronavirus in Oman, with its worrying increase of cases and mortalities, and the factors leading to this concern, particularly family and social gatherings, together with travel-related reasons. Hence, to halt further spread of the pandemic, and to guard capacity of local healthcare system, the Supreme Committee has decided the following:

1,To extend implementation of the closure imposed on all business activities in the Sultanate that is currently applicable from 8pm to 5am until April 3^rd 2021, except for petrol stations, private health facilities and pharmacies, tire shops at petrol stations, good transport with loading and unloading, operation of factories without receiving customers, home delivery, drive-thru of restaurants, cafes, mobile cafes and authorized mobile vendors, and eventually hotel restaurants to their guests only.

2, To activate volunteering across the sultanate , in coordination with their excellencies the Walis.

3, To allow the exercise of individual sports at beaches, while prohibiting any gatherings therein.

4,To reduce the number of employees in workplaces in units of the administrative apparatus of the state and other public legal persons to 70% only, starting from Sunday, March 21^st to April 1^st 2021. The committee therefore urges all units to adhere to the preventive measures and monitor compliance with them.

The Supreme Committee calls on everyone to adhere to all the precautionary controls adopted by the competent authorities, whether inside homes, work sites or public places, and in particular to avoid gatherings, including family and social, in homes, farms, etc., for any occasion.

The Supreme Committee also calls on all public and private sector institutions to put in place the necessary mechanisms to enforce compliance with the approved controls, and not to tolerate violators of those controls. The Supreme Committee also affirms that the competent authorities will continue to arrest violators and impose approved penalties on them, in order to protect all members of society.