Coronavirus: Jeddah shuts down 190 shops for violating COVID-19 health protocols

Jeddah authorities have shut down 190 shops of various activities and 59 workshops for violating municipal regulations and health protocols in place against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a statement from the city’s municipality.

The Undersecretary for Sub-Municipalities, Eng. Mohammed bin Ibrahim al-Zahrani, said that authorities have assigned public employees within Jeddah to ensure the shops in Jeddah all adhere to the city’s municipal requirements and the preventive protocols issued by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

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He pointed out that monitoring teams are continuing to check on all commercial activities around the clock to ensure that shops are following existing health regulations and protocols.

According to the Saudi Gazette newspaper, businesses are required to adhere to newly revised precautionary measures at the workplace which include providing their staff with sanitizers and taking the temperatures of both staff and customers at the entrances of shopping malls.

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Pigeons gather around closed shops in the old town of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on April 2, 2020, as the desert kingdom sealed off several cities, barring people from entering and exiting the capital as well as Jeddah, Mecca and Medina. (File photo: AFP)

“Any gathering of shoppers or workers inside or outside a shopping mall in a way that exceeds the numbers stipulated in the precautionary measures and preventive measures will attract a penalty of SR5,000 for each person exceeding the stipulated numbers, but not exceeding SR100,000,” the Saudi Gazette reported.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday confirmed 1,409 new cases of the coronavirus infections and 34 deaths. The Kingdom saw its total number of recoveries rise to 272, 911, after 4,526 people recovered from COVID-19.

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