Saudi Arabia continued to expand rules and regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the Kingdom and King Salman gave a rare speech to address the Saudi public on Friday, as the world seeks to stop the spread of the deadly virus and calm global markets.
King Salman urged people to act with solidarity and cooperation and to adhere to official directives, and said that “[w]e are living through a difficult period in the history of the world, but we are fully aware that it will pass despite its cruelty, bitterness and difficulty.”
On Friday, the Kingdom announced a new two-week ban on all domestic flights, buses, taxis and trains, effective Saturday. The decision effectively brings Saudi Arabia under a shelter-in-place rule that is starting to become the norm globally. The U.S. state of California was the first to adopt such measures on Thursday and it is expected that other states and cities in the U.S. will follow suit.
Saudi Arabia has so far confirmed 274 infections and no deaths, while globally the pandemic has killed nearly 10,000 and infected over 240,000. 8 have recovered. The World Health Organization noted that globally it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide —but only 12 days to reach the next 100,000.
Some analysts have singled out Saudi Arabia as one of the most effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19 domestically.
“Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, I think they did a much better job than many Western countries,” Jordanian analyst Osama al Sharif was quoted as saying in VOA News. “Look at Italy, Spain, Germany, UK and US all of them were very late in realizing how dangerous this pandemic is and taking public measures to contain and mitigate it,” he said.
