Covid-19: Six night closures so far in Oman

Muscat: Friday evening marks the last day of a series of night closures that began to be implemented by a decision of the Supreme Committee in charge of dealing with Covid-19, effective from Thursday, July 29, 2021.

The Supreme Committee issued a decision yesterday, to withdraw the decision to close commercial activities and prevent movement of individuals and vehicles, starting from the evening of Saturday, August 21, 2021.

So far, the Supreme Committee has issued six decisions for night closure, interspersed with extensions, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as the first decision came on July 21, 2020 and banned movement of persons and closed all public places and shops from July 28, 2020 to August 8, 2020 from 7:00 pm until 6:00 am.

Then, on August 7, 2020, it was decided to extend the closing period to August 15, 2020, while changing the closing hours to be between 9:00 pm until 5:00 am.

Then again the committee issued an extension on October 9, 2020, banning movement and closing all public places and shops from 8:00 pm until 5:00 am, starting from Sunday, October 11, 2020 until Saturday, October 24  2020.

The third closure decision was issued on March 25, 2021, this time, the timings were 8:00 pm to 5:00 am, which continued until the morning of Thursday, April 8, 2021.

The fourth closure decision was made on June 20, 2021 prohibiting the movement of individuals and vehicles, and closing all public places and commercial activities (allowing home delivery) from 8:00 pm until 4:00 am, starting from the evening of Sunday, June 20, 2021 until further notice.

The committee then issued a decision to enforce the closure from July 20, 2021, banning the movement of individuals and vehicles from 5:00 pm until 4:00 am, with the possibility of opening commercial activities and delivery service until July 31, 2021, and ensuring a complete closure for four days during the blessed Eid Al-Adha.

Finally, the Supreme Committee issued a decision to reduce the closure timings to between 10:00 pm until 4:00 am, starting on Thursday evening, corresponding to July 29, 2021, until further notice, which will end at dawn tomorrow, Saturday, August 21, 2021.