Jordan confirmed 12 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday. By the impact of the crisis, the central bank announced measures to help troubled businesses and a tourism sector hit hard.
The kingdom imposed measures on Saturday to fight the outbreak, including a tighter lockdown that closes all borders. In addition, it includes the bans all incoming and outgoing flights as of Tuesday.
Jordanian officials say the unprecedented measures. It includes closing schools and banning daily prayers in mosques. It took as the epidemic is spreading fast in neighboring Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
The government has kept borders open for commercial cargo. The country has a stockpile of commodities and essential goods that would last six months.
Energy Minister Hala Zawati said that the kingdom’s supplies of gasoline and diesel covered 60 days on current consumption patterns.
It is the one of the discussions of three main fuel importers to bring storage units to the maximum.
Zaid Fariz, as the Central Bank Governor said that in another move, the central bank slashed compulsory reserves for commercial banks to 5% from 7% to inject more than 500 million dinars ($705 million) of extra liquidity to ease the economy’s woes. To emphasize this point, the move was the first in nearly a decade.
Jordan Tourism has Affected due to the Coronavirus
Fariz said the moves aimed at “preserving financial” and fiscal stability” of the country by extending support for the country’s hard-hit economic sectors that were beginning to show cash flow and liquidity problems as a result of the drop in business.
In this case, Fariz said that “The tourism is one of the most important sectors that have been affected directly and negatively after a period of continued growth.”
The country has closed all tourism sites, including its most visited attraction, the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan. Thousands of foreign tourists have left the country in the past few days and hotels occupancy rates have fallen dramatically.
