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AMMAN – Jordan warned on Wednesday that it could be forced to return to a total lockdown, which could devastate its fragile economy, after registering 1,767 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily count since the start of the outbreak.
The total number of confirmed infections in the country is now 11,816, with 61 deaths since the first case appeared in early March, Health Minister Saad Jaber said in a statement.
Jordan, which had one of the lowest infection numbers in the region in the first months of the pandemics spread, has seen an alarming daily rise in numbers this month, with health officials saying the country is now facing a community spread.
The government could be forced to impose a total lockdown that would paralyze daily activity and suspend businesses if a “dangerous” spiral of cases made it difficult for health authorities to handle, government spokesman Amjad Adailah said.
“This is an issue that nobody wants,” he said, referring to the doubling of daily cases in the last week.
The government also tightened prison terms of up to one year for those organizing weddings, parties, funerals or social gatherings attended by more than 20 people, in the latest measures to impose health safeguards.
A two-week school closure was extended for more than two million students who had briefly resumed attendance at the beginning of the month after a five-month absence.
Mosques and workshop venues, however, will be able to reopen from Thursday, along with restaurants, but with much stricter health guarantees.
The government fears that a total lockdown will deal a devastating blow to an aid-dependent economy that is forecast to contract 6% this year, its first decline in decades, and faces rising unemployment, poverty and prospects for civil unrest. .
Authorities said they will enforce the closure of the Baqaa camp outside the capital, one of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East, starting Thursday. The camp is home to more than 200,000 people, but has recorded many infections. (Report by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; edited by William Maclean and Richard Pullin)
