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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Sixteen new infections with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), including 14 local cases, were reported in the Kingdom on Monday, bringing the caseload since the start of the pandemic to 1268, Health Minister, Saad Jaber announced.

The new local cases included 6 infections in Irbid, 5 of which were for customs employees and one case who were in contact with them, one case from Ma'an, who works in customs, one case from Jerash, 4 cases from Amman, who had been in contact with infected person, and two cases from Jaber border crossing, which is still under investigation, Jaber said in a joint press conference, held in the Prime Ministry.

Today, epidemiological investigation teams conducted 6,286 Covid-19 tests, bringing the total number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic to 652759, the minister added.

He pointed out that the number of local infections has seen a rise, as 24 cases were recorded during the past four days.

Jaber said that the concerned authorities have arrested 73 people who tried to flee from the quarantine sites, as well as people who used alcohol in their noses to ensure negative results for their tests, stressing that deception and escape attempts are unacceptable and lead to the deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the Kingdom.

He noted that the Health Ministry demanded the activation of the Defense Order (11), according to which every person must adhere to the established spacing distances, and commit to wearing masks before entering public places, including ministries and official and public departments and institutions, and before entering places where direct services are provided to the public, including companies, establishments, facilities or places of shops, malls, commercial stores, medical clinics and health centers.

Regarding the adherence to the health measures' matrix, Jaber underlined that going back to strict measures and closing economic sectors, is decided according to the Kingdom's epidemiological situation.

He explained that some sectors were reopened due to economic pressures on citizens despite their Blue Zone classification, and that ministerial committee, composed of the ministers of industry, labour and health, to evaluate the opening of the sectors and examine the epidemiological situation.

He further explained that reasons for the reemerging of local infections are due to people coming from border crossings from Covid-19-hit countries, and there is a possibility of recording more infections as the pandemic has not ended in the world.

He confirmed that the Interior Ministry oversees the border crossings via a special presence of a private administrator, and 400 caravans equipped with water and electricity have also been built on the borders for quarantine purposes.

The Health Minister emphasized that the local infections that are recorded are real for real people, and they are announced with all honesty and transparency.

With regard to the number of tests carried out by Jordan, Jaber said that the number of tests in the Kingdom is five times more than what is required by the World Health Organization (WHO), which requires 15,000 tests for every million people.