Seven Middle Eastern countries have suspended commercial flights due to the fast-spreading virus. The aviation industry's largest trade association announced Thursday that airlines in the region have already lost more than $7 billion in revenue.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents around 290 airlines worldwide, said the travel restrictions that countries have imposed to slow down the spread of the virus "have more far-reaching implications than anything we have seen before."
Since the end of January, 16,000 passenger flights have been cancelled in the Middle East. The financial losses translate into hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, IATA said.
Meanwhile Jordan's army Thursday sealed off the capital from the rest of the country as the kingdom puts its ten million inhabitants under a lockdown to try to combat the spread of coronavirus, witnesses and officials said.
Army checkpoints on main entrances to the sprawling capital of more than three million inhabitants began imposing a ban that allows entry only to vehicles carrying essential goods or people with authorised business from other provinces, witnesses said.
"These measures are to prevent the spread of the virus," Brigadier General Mukhles al Mufleh, army spokesman told state media.
The government has yet to announce a formal curfew but has asked people to stay in their homes and move only for emergencies. Security forces have threatened prison terms for violators.
Jordan has closed land and sea border crossings with Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Israel, and suspended all incoming and outgoing flights since Tuesday. Only cargo flights and commercial overland shipments are entering or leaving the country.
Most shops shut their doors Wednesday, heeding a government order that malls and shops close except for food stalls and pharmacies. Police later sealed with red wax stores that had defied the government decision.
Health Minister Saad Jaber said he expected the number of confirmed cases would rise from the current 56 before the measures to contain the spread took effect.
The country has quarantined more than 5,000 people who have recently arrived from abroad.
Measures taken in recent days have closed schools and public transport and prayers have been banned in mosques, while most public and private sector employees have been asked to stay at home.
Having closed cafes, banned mass prayers and halted flights to 20 countries, Turkey further increased its' preventative measures Thursday as Ankara announced a second death and said cases of the highly contagious respiratory illness had nearly doubled to 191.
Clothing retailers said they were shutting stores and shopping centres due to the spread of the coronavirus, after Ankara promised economic support. Among specific measures, Erdogan said Turkey's tourism accommodation tax was being suspended until November to support the key tourism sector, which accounts for some 12% of the economy.
Debt repayments of companies affected by the coronavirus will be postponed for a minimum of three months.
Egypt will shut all cafes, malls, sporting clubs and nightclubs from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. local time, starting Thursday, until March 31 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the government said in a statement Thursday.
The government said supermarkets and pharmacies were exempt for the closure. The country has so far registered 210 cases of the new respiratory disease, including 6 deaths.
Agencies
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