Jordan warned on Wednesday it could be forced to return to a full lockdown after recording 1,767 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak.
The country’s total number of confirmed infections now stands at 11,816, with 61 deaths since the first case surfaced in early March, Health Minister Saad Jaber said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
Jordan, which had some of the lowest numbers of infections in the region in the first few months of the pandemics’ spread, has seen daily numbers rise alarmingly this month, with health officials saying the country now faced a community spread.
The government could be forced to impose a full lockdown that would paralyse daily activity and suspend businesses if a “dangerous” spiral of cases made it difficult for health authorities to cope, government spokesman Amjad Adailah said.
“This is a matter that no one wants,” he said, according to Reuters, referring to a doubling of daily cases within the last week.
The government also stiffened jail sentences to up to a year for anyone organising weddings, parties, funerals or social gatherings where more than 20 people attend, in the latest measures to impose health safeguards.
A two-week closure of schools was extended for more than two million pupils who had briefly resumed attendance at the start of the month after a five-month absence.
Mosques and places of workshop, however, will be allowed to reopen as of Thursday, as will restaurants, though with much stricter health safeguards.
Jordan imposed a tough curfew enforced with drones to curb the spread of COVID-19, before easing policies in early June.
In July, King Abdullah II said his country had successfully brought the novel coronavirus "under control" and would "come out stronger (from the crisis) compared to other countries in the region".