CAIRO Saudi Arabia has asked people who have travelled to Lebanon, Egypt, Italy or South Korea to self-quarantine for two weeks from the day of their arrival in the Kingdom, Saudi state media quoted the health ministry as saying on Saturday.
It asked people who had visited any of the four countries showing symptoms of the virus to contact the authorities.
Saudi Arabia reported two new coronavirus cases on Saturday, a woman who came from Iran via Bahrain and another woman who came to the Gulf kingdom from Iraq, taking the total number of cases to seven.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia announced that it has placed new preventive and precautionary measures in its fight against the novel coronavirus, by temporarily restricting the entry of Emirati, Kuwaiti and Bahraini nationals into the country.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, SPA, citizens from those countries will only be permitted entry through the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Saudi Arabia has also closed it land borders with theses three countries, with an exception for commercial trucks.
Oman suspends flights to Egypt
Oman on Saturday suspended flights to Egypt for a month and said all residents entering the country must produce certificates to prove that they are free of virus
Egypt confirmed 33 new cases of coronavirus on a River Nile cruise ship. None of the new cases were showing symptoms of the virus, Health Minister Hala Zayed told reporters. Of 12 suspected cases among the crew announced on Friday, 11 tested negative, she said, but would nevertheless be quarantined for two weeks.
Tourism is a key sector in Egypt’s economy and an important source of foreign exchange. It has recently recovered after years of disruption after Egypt’s 2011 uprising.
The ship arrived in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor on Thursday from Aswan, further upstream, and was towed to a position outside the city and placed under quarantine, state media reported.
The first cases emerged after a Taiwanese-American woman who had been on the cruise tested positive for the coronavirus upon her return home.
In total, 171 people were on board the boat including 101 passengers and 70 crew, Zayed said. Of the 45 suspected cases from the boat announced over the past two days, 19 were foreign nationals.
Before the cases on the cruise ship, Egypt had announced just three cases of coronavirus, one of whom it said had fully recovered.
Zayed also said Egypt was deploying testing devices at airports that would show within 30 minutes whether travellers had the coronavirus.
