Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Security Spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Lt. Col. Talal Al-Shalhoub stressed on Saturday that the curfew regulation and the regulation limiting gatherings were necessitated to curb the spread of coronavirus, but violations of the curfew continued to grow.

He said the number of violations of the curfew reached 3,334 on Friday, with violators caught in every regions and cities of the Kingdom. Of the 3,334 curfew violations Kingdomwide, 1,845 violators were in Riyadh, followed by Makkah Province with 281 violators, and the Eastern Province with 277 violators.

During the joint press conference daily on the latest developments regarding the coronavirus crisis in the Kingdom, Lt. Col. Al-Shalhoub stressed that the curfew regulation and the rule limiting gatherings aim to impose mandatory social distancing and organize human gatherings that are a direct cause for the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and to prevent it.

He added that the objective is also to ensure that the virus is contained and to prevent any outbreak and losing control.

Lt. Col. Al-Shalhoub referred to what the Ministry of Health had affirmed during the past few days, via the daily press conference and through the Health Ministry Spokesman Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulaali, who said that were signs of CVID-19 infection among women and children, as a result of family visits and movement from one location to another.

Lt. Col. Al-Shalhoub said that the periods allowed for mobility are meant to enable all to go out and get their most essential needs. It is not for visits and socializing that violate the regulation limiting gatherings, as they contribute to the outbreak and transmission of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

He also touched on the monitoring by security authorities during the past two days of several street vendors’ gatherings at more than one location.

On inspecting these sites, the competent authorities found that they were not complying with mandatory social distancing. Furthermore, they were violating the regulations that restricted gatherings, as well as the residency (iqama) and labor regulations.

The security spokesman stressed that the ban on gatherings of all forms, shapes, and places of occurrence, include any gathering of one or more families, from a family of 5 or more in one limited space, such that those in the gathering have no relationship, and specifically if they are not living in the same residence. In other words, they have no residential relationship.

Lt. Col. Al-Shalhoub mentioned five forms of gatherings that violate the regulations, including:

First: Family gatherings: It is any gathering of more than one family inside homes, rest houses or farms.

Second: Non-family gatherings inside homes, rest houses, farms, camps, chalets, or open areas for the residents of one neighborhood or others, and the like.

Third: The gatherings for social events, such as weddings, mourning, seminars, and the like.

Fourth: Gathering of workers inside homes or buildings under construction, rest-houses or farms, and the like, that are not their residences.

Fifth: Gatherings in the licensed shops, whether by shoppers or workers inside or outside the commercial store, exceeding the numbers stipulated in the precautionary and preventive measures.