Army publishes list of persons, entities exempted from movement restriction

AMMAN — The Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army on Thursday published a list of groups and individuals exempted from the movement restriction order imposed to contain the breakout of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

On Wednesday, the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army had announced that the entry and exit points of Amman and all governorates of the Kingdom would be closed, with movement between governorates prohibited from Thursday morning until further notice.

Individuals and entities exempted from this movement restriction order are permitted to transit freely between cities and governorates without restrictions.

The army has exempted industrial and commercial sub-sectors as follows:

1- Food supply chains, including mills, bakeries, poultry, meat, dairy, foodstuff, vegetable, fruit and water stores

2- Companies that distribute and transport foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits

3- Drug stores and manufacturers of human and veterinary drugs, pesticides and medical supplies

4- Sanitary paper manufacturers

5- Manufacturers of detergents and sterilisers

6- Manufacturers of packaging, plastic and aluminium required for foodstuffs, agricultural products, pharmaceuticals and detergents

The exemption also applies to the water sector, covering only:

1- Yarmouk, Miyahuna and Aqaba water companies

2- The operating and maintaining of Al Samra station

3- The Disi Water Conveyance project

4- The Wadi Araba project

For the energy sector, the exemption applies to:

1- All electric power generation and distribution companies, with the minimum staff present to maintain operations

2- The Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company, natural gas filling centres, oil derivatives marketing companies and gas stations

3- The Jordanian-Egyptian FAJR for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply

4- The Technical Company for Gas Pipeline Operation Services

5- The National Gas Industries Company

6- Transport vehicles operating on public oil transportation, oil derivatives and retail gas sales centres of all kinds

Regarding the agricultural sector, the decision includes:

1- Importers, exporters and sellers of agricultural stuff and inputs need for livestock production

2- Filling, grading and storage stations

3- Traders of agricultural products in the central markets and retail stores related to the sale of animal and vegetable products

4- The owners of farms and agricultural workers, within the production and work areas

5- Vehicles loaded with agricultural and animal products, as well as the production supplies needed for such products

6- Veterinary clinics and pharmacies

The exemptions apply to the logistics services sector as follows:

1- Logistics services companies, including navigation and air transport agents, clearance companies, commercial freight forwarding, distribution, loading and unloading and transport management and regulation companies, with a minimum staff to sustain operations

2- Security entities within the logistics sector

The communications and information technology sector:

1- Telecommunications companies, with a minimum number of employees to sustain operations

2- Call centre employees, to ensure the sustainability of service provision, provided that at least 50 per cent of staff do their work from home by the end of March 18, 2020 and 100 per cent by the end of March 22, 2020

3- Companies that work on the Ministry of Education’s distance learning platform: Idrak, Mawdoo3, Abwab and JoAcademy

4 - Other employees of communications and information technology companies not mentioned above are required to work from home according to the decisions and directives of their departments to determine who should come to the companies’ headquarters and who can work from home

Regarding the media sector, the exemption entitled private media, including newspapers that have their own websites, registered news sites, TV stations, radio channels, representative offices of foreign media operating in the Kingdom and media services offices to move without restrictions, recommending a dependence on remote work and a reduction of the number of working staff as much as possible.

Judges and prosecutors who hold identification cards issued by the Judicial Council are also included in the exemption.

The exemptions granted for the banking sector were exclusive to the minimum necessary employees to sustain operations.

Greater Amman Municipality employees and vehicles are also allowed to move without restrictions to sustain work.

This decision came in implementation of a Cabinet resolution issued on Tuesday, which includes a number of precautionary and preventive measures to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.