6 COVID-19 cases recorded on Wednesday

AMMAN — The Kingdom on Wednesday registered six new cases of COVID-19, including two local cases, increasing the caseload to 987, according to Health Minister Saad Jaber.

The two local cases were registered in Zarqa and Amman, while the other four include a truck driver who tested positive at the Omari border crossing, a guest worker who was tested at the Karameh border crossing in Mafraq and two Jordanians at quarantine centres, one of whom returned to the Kingdom from Egypt and the other from Saudi Arabia, Jaber noted.

No recoveries were reported on Wednesday, the minister said during a press conference at the Prime Ministry, urging citizens to cooperate with epidemiological investigation teams, especially as some have refused to undergo random coronavirus testing, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The health minister said that random tests that show positive results “are worrying, yet we have the ability to deal with them”. 

Jaber pointed out that 9,879 random virus tests were conducted on Wednesday nationwide, increasing the total number of tests to 303,502 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Also speaking at the conference, Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said that the government will issue a new decision to support further sectors affected by the pandemic, namely the transport and agriculture sectors, noting that the government is also considering implementing relief measures for the construction, housing and commercial sectors.

The media minister stressed that the aim of all these government decisions and procedures is to preserve economic sectors and help them recover and overcome this phase while protecting their employees.

He added that the pandemic and its repercussions contributing to the loss of several financial resources in the country have pushed the government to stop technical allocations for all employees, including soldiers, public employees and teachers until the end of 2020. 

Responding to a question regarding the Jordan Teachers Association’s possible escalation due to halting such allocations, Adaileh said that these allocations will resume as of the beginning of next year, stressing that “the Jordanian state does not accept threats and refuses pressure to drop the scholastic year”.