Saudi Arabia has closed its land borders and suspended travels to and from Lebanon and eight other countries in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak in its territory.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry issued in a statement that the Kingdom is temporarily suspending travels to and from nine countries affected by COVID-19. The Kingdom’s land borders were closed as well.
Those restricted countries are the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, South Korea, Egypt, Italy, and Iraq.
The measures regarding air and sea travel were taken by Saudi Arabia in an attempt to limit and contain the Coronavirus spread in the Kingdom that has reached 15 registered cases.
Authorities also announced that those who do not declare correct health-related information at the entry point will be fined up to $133,000.
Other than travels, Saudi Arabia has also shut down access to its holiest sites to impede the gathering of large masses as it is usually the case.
Similarly, Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines has suspended all travels to and from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait until further notice.
Saudi Arabia records 20 affected cases among which 1 has recovered, according to Worldometers.
As of March 10th ( 15:25 GMT), the same source indicates 116,657 cases worldwide, among which 64,750 have recovered.
Worldwide, the death toll is at 4,091 with China recording the most cases (3,136), followed by Italy (463) and Iran (291).
It is important to mention that China is marking the total recovery of 60,113 patients from its total cases of 80,761.
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