Muscat lockdown extended, ban on all Ramadhan gatherings

Muscat:  The Supreme Committee entrusted with handling the developments resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic held a meeting under the chairmanship of Sayyid Hamood bin Faisal al Busaidy at the General Diwan of the Ministry of Interior, on Monday. Attended by all committee members, the meeting followed up the deployments of COVID-19, and discussed measures for containing the outbreak and handling its repercussions.

On the occasion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadhan, the Supreme Committee extended greetings to His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, the Omani people and the Arab and Muslim peoples, praying to Almighty Allah to lift the COVID-19 pandemic from the whole humanity and grant everyone good health and tranquillity.

The Supreme Committee has taken a number of new decisions related to precautionary measures that should be followed during Ramadhan. The Supreme Committee has decided to extend the lockdown of Muscat Governorate until 10 am on Friday (May 8).

The Supreme Committee called upon everyone to avoid all sorts of gatherings during the holy month of Ramadhan, and decided that closure of mosques will continue during Ramadhan except for the call to prayer including for Taraweeh prayers.

The Supreme Committee issued a strict ban on holding of Ramadhan gatherings, including mass iftars be it in mosques or other places like tents and public areas. The committee has banned social, sporting and cultural gatherings and all sorts of social activities during Ramadhan. The Ministry of Health on Monday announced the registration of 144 new positive cases with coronavirus in the Sultanate. 58 of the new cases are Omanis and 86 are non-Omanis. This brings the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Sultanate to 1,410, in addition to 7 deaths. The ministry also pointed out that 238 cases have recovered.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has procured one million Hydroxychloroquine pills, the drug approved by the ministry for the treatment of coronavirus sufferers, from India. ONA