Oman’s supreme committee responsible for Covid-19 has ordered a two-week night curfew to curb a rise in infections. The nationwide curfew will run from 8pm to 5am and be in place from October 11 to October 24. “In the light of the current situation regarding the rise of infections in the country, it has been decided to impose the curfew to protect members of the public and limit the spread of the virus. We ask people to adhere to the new rule and business owners violating it will be named and shamed in the media,” a statement from the supreme committee said on Friday. All beaches in Oman will be closed during the two-week period. So far this month, an average of 720 people have been infected a day, according to the official statistics. The total number of cases in the country has passed 100,000 and more than 1,000 have died. Business owners, especially retailers, say the new curfew will hit their trades very hard at a time when things had started to look up. “Most shoppers do their shopping after seven in the evening. That means the curfew starts at the most profitable time. We were beginning to recover from the previous lockdowns and now we are being hit by another one,” said Sami Al Khraifi, the owner of a supermarket in Muscat. Ordinary people called the new curfew “depressing” and completely unjustified. “People will gather before 8pm. They will not wait until the curfew time starts. It will not work and there is no justification for it. It is also very depressing to stay indoors after a hard day at work,” said Arkam Al Balushi, 28, a civil servant. Omani authorities have blamed the rise in infections on people failing to take health precautions seriously. _______________
