Two coronavirus-related deaths, 363 infections recorded Wednesday

AMMAN — Two coronavirus-related deaths, 363 virus cases, including 354 local infections, were recorded on Wednesday, Health Minister Saad Jaber said during a press briefing at the Prime Ministry.

The new fatalities, two men in their 80s and 70s, took Jordan’s coronavirus death toll to 35, Jaber said.

The local cases comprised 268 infections in Amman, four in Karak, 43 in Balqa, six in Irbid, 26 in Zarqa, one in Maan, one in Ajloun, one in Madaba and four in Mafraq. 

Also on Wednesday, a total of 98 recovered patients left hospitals, the health minister said, adding that the total number of recoveries stood at 3,812, leaving 844 people under treatment.

Meanwhile, epidemiological investigation teams on Wednesday conducted 17,000 virus tests, increasing the cumulative number of tests administered since the outbreak of the pandemic in the Kingdom to 1,112,679

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said that "news circulated on social media regarding a full lockdown for three weeks is untrue”, noting that “such a procedure was not even considered at all". 

Adaileh said that procedures taken by the government consider economic, social and psychological impacts in addition to the health of citizens.

He added that it is "so difficult in this phase to resort to comprehensive lockdown and curfew despite the fact that many in the region and the world have readopted such measures". 

Reaching the phase of community transmission of the virus and the increase in the number of infections in various parts of the Kingdom require "the highest level of caution", the minister said, stressing that “the responsibility has to be shouldered by each one of us".

Regarding Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Omar Razzaz's instructions to impose penalties against public officials who failed to apply public safety measures, Adaileh said that the Audit Bureau has sent a report on 37 public institutions that violated health measures to the premier, noting that other nine departments were fined on Wednesday. 

Also speaking at the presser, Higher Education Minister Muhyiddine Touq said that the start of the academic year was postponed to October 11. 

Touq said that the university educational process includes both traditional and online classes, where bachelor's degree students are required to attend online classes.

Touq added that subjects that need practical application will be taught on campus.

Medicine and dentistry students will resume their education on campus, where dean councils have the authority to decide on subjects that can be taught online, the minister noted. 

He added that some online classes will be open for Jordanian students who are still abroad and non-Jordanian students who cannot come back to the Kingdom.