COVID-19: Saudi Arabia tightens curfew, suspends inter-city travel

Saudi Arabia has tightened curfews in 13 cities across the country and suspended inter-city travel between Riyadh, Medina and Mecca, according to state news agency SPA.

Saudi Arabia on Monday had imposed a curfew across the country starting at 7pm local time until 6am for 21 days to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now, it has tightened it further to begin at 3pm local time.

The tighter curfew has come a day ahead of a virtual G20 leaders’ summit, which will be chaired by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz “to advance a coordinated global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its human and economic implications,” a statement from the G20 Saudi Secretariat said.