Saudi Arabia Suspends Umrah for Citizens, U.A.E. Shuts Schools
Dubai, Abu Dhabi to Shut Schools as Virus Spreads in Middle East
(Bloomberg) --
Saudi Arabia took the rare step of suspending the umrah pilgrimage to Mecca for its citizens and residents in response to the coronavirus, a week after taking similar action toward foreigners.
The United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s business hub, will shut schools for four weeks. All public and private education institutions will be closed from March 8. A pilot program for distance education will be implemented during the last weeks of the period.
About 1,200 Israelis have been instructed to quarantine themselves after coming near an infected teenager.
Many conferences and business meetings in the region have also been canceled or delayed.
Iran, which reported 586 new cases on Wednesday, canceled Friday prayers in all provincial capital cities including Tehran and Qom, where the country’s cases were first detected. President Hassan Rouhani said the coronavirus has spread to almost all provinces.
Mideast, North Africa Breakdown:
- Iran: 2,922 cases, including 92 deaths
- Kuwait: 56
- Bahrain: 52
- Iraq: 30
- U.A.E.: 27
- Lebanon: 13
- Oman: 12
- Israel: 12
- Qatar: 8
- Algeria: 8
- Egypt: 2
- Saudi Arabia: 1
- Tunisia: 1
- Jordan: 1
- Morocco: 1
- NOTE: ECB, UBS Restrict Travel; Traders Price in BOE Cut: Virus Update
New Developments:
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s stock markets are among the world’s worst performers today, weighed down by some of their biggest lenders. The U.A.E. Central Bank lowered interest rates on Tuesday following the Federal Reserve’s emergency move.
- Egypt barred Qatari citizens after the Gulf state restricted arrivals from the North African country.
- Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, scheduled for March 12-21, has been delayed. About 107 feature and short films were to be screened in the kingdom, which reopened cinemas in 2018 after more than 35 years.
- Kuwait announced precautionary measures against people coming from Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Egypt and Syria.
- A man suspected of being infected by the coronavirus died in the Kurdistan region’s Sulaymaniyah city.
Read more:
- Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World
- Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus and here for maps and charts. For analysis of the impact from Bloomberg Economics, click here.
--With assistance from Arsalan Shahla, Yasna Haghdoost, Sylvia Westall and Abdel Latif Wahba.
To contact the reporters on this story: Shaji Mathew in Dubai at shajimathew@bloomberg.net;Farah Elbahrawy in Dubai at felbahrawy@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel
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