25% of Jordan's population contracted coronavirus, says official

A quarter of Jordan’s population has been infected with the novel coronavirus, a health official announced on Saturday.

The member of Jordan’s National Committee for Epidemics, Bassam Hijjawi, told Al-Mamlaka that the infection rate ranged “between 20 to 25 per cent of the country’s total population.”

Jordan’s infection rates have increased in recent months, with the kingdom recording over 5,000 new infections and 50 fatalities every day.

“Jordan has passed the peak stage of infections and there has been a notable decrease in the number of daily infections,” Hijjawi pointed out, adding that the decline had come following “citizens’ adherence to the government imposed precautionary measures.”

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He said that the number of coronavirus fatalities had declined by “half during the past weeks,”  noting that the government would “review the measures in place to plan ahead for the next year.”

The head of the kingdom’s Epidemiological Assessment Committee,Saad Al Kharabsheh, told Hayat FM recently that the first batch of a vaccine for the virus would arrive “in January or February”.

“Some 200,000 vaccine doses will arrive in Jordan as a first batch during the first quarter of next year,” Al Kharabsheh pointed out, adding that the vaccines would be “sufficient for 100,000 people.” He also explained that the batch would be allocated to the “elderly, health workers and those with chronic diseases.”

There are currently a total of 259,614 infected people in Jordan, 3,365 have died, and 218,467 others have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers.

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