Oman will close its land borders from January 18

Oman’s Supreme Committee tasked with tackling COVID-19 decided on Sunday to close the Sultanate’s land ports for one week starting from January 18, local media reported.

In a statement, the committee said the land ports will be closed from 6pm on Monday after “the specialized technical team reported the spread of the new highly contagious strain of the coronavirus.”

The committee affirmed that the Sultanate’s competent authorities are closely following up on the violations of COVID-19 precautions, adding that violators will be punished. It added that a growing number of citizens and residents are not strictly adhering to the approved precautionary measures, especially not wearing facemasks and holding gatherings with large numbers of participants, which may cause an outbreak of the virus in the community.