The Corona Emergency Ministerial Committee in the Council of Ministers will hold a decisive meeting on Sunday, with the attendance of concerned authorities, to submit a report to the Council of Ministers, who will, in turn, hold a meeting on Monday or next Wednesday, Al Qabas reported. This meeting will decide on a curfew during the days leading to the national holiday celebrations. The concerned authorities have raised their levels of preparedness for the possibility of the decision to implement a partial or total curfew.
Government sources revealed to Al-Qabas that the health authorities spent the weekend, until late yesterday evening, in intensive meetings that included several parties, most notably: the Interior Ministry, the Media, the National Guard, the Fire Department, and the Civil Aviation to discuss the procedures for implementing the curfew. This was regarded as a measure to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, which has claimed 80 lives in just 20 days.
The sources said that during the meetings, each party reviewed its plans, and what could be done, to ensure adherence to the law, as well as to check on both the drug and food stocks and the mechanisms for organizing the public entry into associations and markets during the implementation of the curfew.
This comes at a time when security sources told Al-Qabas that about 2,500 security personnel from various sectors of the Ministry of Interior will implement the curfew decision, if approved by the Council of Ministers. It explained that the field security authorities of various sectors are readying to follow through on the decisions of the Council of Ministers. Some of the possible decisions include forbidding gatherings with Security forces having strict instructions to disperse any gathering, and ensure those violators face legal penalties without exception.
The sources concluded that the security directors of the six governorates will be tasked with following up on the implementation of the curfew in the field if it is approved by the Council of Ministers, and today they will put the final touches on the pre-prepared plan ready for implementation.
Another alternative is to tighten measures and prevent gatherings during the national holidays, instead of the curfew scenario in order to avoid billions of losses to various sectors of the economy.