Coronavirus: Uber temporarily halts services in several Saudi cities

Uber said on Tuesday it was temporarily halting its services in several Saudi Arabian cities and governorates after a round-the-clock curfew was announced to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Uber will “pause” its services in the cities of Riyadh, Tabuk, Dammam, Dhahran and Al-Hofuf, and the governorates of Jeddah, Taif, Qatif and Khobar, it said in an email to customers. The interior ministry has announced a 24-hour curfew in those areas.

Uber had already suspended the option to book regular taxi services through its app in Saudi Arabia until further notice.

Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.

Saudi Arabia’s health minister said the Kingdom's coronavirus cases could reach between 10,000 to 200,000 within weeks, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday.

“There is no doubt that our commitment to the instructions and procedures, in its entirety reduces the number of cases to the minimum, while non-compliance will lead to a huge increase in the number of cases,” Dr. Tawfig al-Rabiah was quoted as saying by SPA.

The Kingdom has recorded a total of 2,795 cases so far and the death toll reached 41 as of Tuesday, according to the health ministry.

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