Arabic Press Commentaries March 17 2020

Al Ghad’s Fahd Khitan said that the announcement of new cases of COVID-19 in Jordan marked a new phase of the Kingdom’s confrontation with the novel coronavirus, which was described by Health Minister Saad Jaber as “the phase of containment”.

Khitan said that although the cases have been from external sources, as most of them are tourists or new arrivals, Jordanians should expect to record more cases, because the infected persons have contacted Jordanians. The writer said that early measures taken by the government contributed to hindering the arrival of the virus to Jordan, but they did not completely prevent the entry of asymptomatic cases.

Perhaps COVID-19 testing measures at airports and border-crossings were lacking, the columnist noted. He said that the second package of measures announced by the government on Saturday is more rigorous, and has put Jordan in a two-week isolation state that will test Jordan’s ability and chances to beat the pandemic.

Khitan said that Jordan’s success in beating the virus relies greatly on the speed of detecting the contacted cases, and treating them before they infect others. He said that detecting the cases requires providing the necessary medical equipment to perform tests, abiding by strict measures in public spaces, reducing activity in markets and expanding the flexible work bylaw.

He said that the crisis cell works round-the-clock, and since the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management took over the operation, Jordan has witnessed qualitative progress in terms of performance, and high harmony between government apparatuses. He said that this lead to more confident support from citizens and sectors towards the government’s decisions.