KUWAIT: The health ministry announced yesterday the discovery of three new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, as the number of COVID-19 cases topped 100,000 worldwide. Health Ministry spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad indicated that all of the previously announced cases were in compulsory quarantine, adding that all of them recently returned from Iran. The number of those infected with the virus has reached 61 with one case of recovery thus far. The health ministry denied rumors that one of the critical cases had died.

Kuwait also suspended all flights to and from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Bangladesh, Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka for a week starting yesterday, the civil aviation directorate announced. Kuwait also banned the entry of anyone who has been in the seven countries in the last two weeks except for Kuwaitis coming from the seven countries, who will be allowed entry but will have to submit to quarantine procedures, the civil aviation directorate added.

Saudi Arabia limited yesterday land crossings with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain to commercial trucks only, with arrivals from the three countries temporarily limited to three airports as a precaution taken over the spread of the coronavirus, Saudi news agency SPA reported. The three airports are King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, SPA added.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia reopened yesterday the area around the sacred Kaaba in Makkah's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, reversing one of a series of measures introduced to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi authorities this week suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage and also announced the temporary closure of the area around the Kaaba.

But King Salman has "allowed for the opening of the mataf (where people circle the Kaaba) for non-umrah performers" starting yesterday at dawn, SPA reported. Hundreds of Muslims were seen rotating around the Kaaba, but the area between two hills that pilgrims must go between seven times to complete umrah remained closed. Barricades blocked access to the Kaaba, draped in a gold-embroidered black cloth, while men in green uniforms cleaned the white-tiled floor. Authorities had emptied the Grand Mosque for sterilization on Thursday.

Authorities have said prayers will be allowed at the Prophet's (PBUH) Mosque in Madinah and in Makkah's Grand Mosque while the umrah is suspended, apart from during nighttime cleaning and sterilization. The suspension has left thousands of Muslim pilgrims in limbo. Around two-thirds of the 18.3 million umrah participants in 2018 were citizens and residents of the kingdom, according to government statistics. The newly established ministry of sports said it would "suspend public attendance" at all sports events starting yesterday, reflecting calls across the Gulf to cancel mass gatherings.

The number of coronavirus cases in the United Arab Emirates has risen to 45 from 30, while Qatar reported its 12th case, the health ministries in the two nations said yesterday. Saudi Arabia reported two new cases yesterday, a woman coming from Iran, via Bahrain, and another one from Iraq, via the UAE, bringing the total number of infection in the kingdom to seven, according to a statement from the health ministry.

The virus, which was first recorded in China in December, has spread across the Gulf and beyond. Most cases in the Gulf Arab states are among people who either travelled to Iran personally, or were infected by people who had visited the Islamic Republic. The United Arab Emirates, a major air transit center, business and tourism hub, has advised citizens and residents against travelling abroad and all schools are closing for a month from today. Events across the country have also been cancelled or postponed, while some sports, such as horse racing and soccer, are going ahead without any fans in attendance.

Dozens of Saudis have come forward after authorities called on Friday for people who had been in Iran during the last two weeks to inform officials, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday, citing the health ministry. Members of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority tend to keep their trips to Iran secret due to a bitter rivalry between the two countries. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran in Jan 2016.

The Saudi Press Agency said 95 Saudis have come forward to say they are currently in Iran, while 26 said they had returned from Iran. Another seven said they were in a third country after having visited Iran, SPA said. Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV cited Bahraini health officials saying yesterday six new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the Gulf state, bringing its total number of infections to 62.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus in Iran continued to rise yesterday with 21 more people killed, including a politician who became the eighth official to succumb to the disease. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced 1,076 additional cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tolls to 145 dead and 5,823 infected. "More than 16,000 people are currently hospitalized as suspect cases," Jahanpour said during a televised news conference. He added that 1,669 people who were sick with the COVID-19 illness have recovered.

The Islamic republic is battling one of the world's deadliest outbreaks of the disease outside China, where it originated. The capital Tehran remains the worst-hit province in the country, with 1,539 confirmed cases. Yesterday, a newly elected conservative MP for the city was the second Iranian lawmaker killed by the virus, state news agency IRNA reported.

Fatemeh Rahbar, 55, served as MP from 2004 to 2016 and was among the top candidates in Tehran for the conservatives, who overwhelmingly won February's general election marked by the lowest turnout in the Islamic republic's history. Seven other politicians and government officials have died in the outbreak since the country reported its first cases in mid-February.

Iran has closed schools and universities until early April, as well as suspended major cultural and sporting events and reduced working hours across the country to slow the contagion, which has spread to all of its 31 provinces. The number of infections is climbing in northern provinces in particular, Jahanpour said. More than 300 of the new cases reported yesterday were in Mazandaran province, a popular tourist destination north of Tehran on the Caspian sea.

Several provinces, including in northern and central Iran, have said they will not provide lodging to tourists in an effort to dissuade people from travelling. Gilan and Mazandaran police from Friday started preventing cars without local license plates from entering the provinces. But according to an adviser to the health minster Alireza Vahabzadeh, some locals were bypassing the restrictions by giving non-residents lifts across province borders. In a tweet, he urged people to "cooperate" with the authorities.

The World Health Organization called the spread of the virus "deeply concerning" as a wave of countries reported their first cases of the disease - which has now killed more than 3,500 people and infected more than 100,000 across 94 nations and territories. The US was battling to contain an outbreak on a cruise ship where 21 people have tested positive for the virus. The Grand Princess has been stranded off San Francisco since Wednesday - when it was supposed to dock - after it emerged that two people who had been on the ship during its previous voyage had contracted the virus. One later died.

US Vice President Mike Pence said the ship will be brought to a non-commercial dock this weekend and all 3,533 passengers and crew will be tested. The Grand Princess belongs to Princess Cruises, the same company which operated the coronavirus-stricken ship held off Japan last month on which more than 700 people tested positive.

In China, where the outbreak began in December, the virus has wreaked havoc on the world's second-largest economy, shutting down businesses and disrupting global supply chains. The negative impact was shown in official data yesterday, with China's exports plunging 17.2 percent in the first two months of the year.

Colombia, Costa Rica and Malta have announced their first cases. Florida confirmed Friday two deaths from the virus - the first US fatalities outside the west coast states of Washington and California - taking the country's death toll to 16. The number of infections in South Korea breached 7,000 yesterday - the highest in the world outside China. Two apartment blocks in Daegu - the fourth-largest city and the epicenter of its outbreak - have been quarantined after dozens of residents tested positive.

The number of cases recorded in France rose to 716 with 11 deaths. Italy, meanwhile, began recruiting retired doctors yesterday as part of urgent efforts to bolster the healthcare system with 20,000 additional staff. In China, the number of new cases reported yesterday nationwide was the lowest in weeks. The Chinese government has hinted it may soon lift the quarantine imposed on Hubei province - the locked-down epicenter where some 56 million people have been effectively housebound since late January. For the second consecutive day, there were no new cases reported in Hubei outside Wuhan, the province's capital.

But the number of infections beyond the epicenter rose for the third straight day, fuelling fears about cases being brought into the country from overseas. There have now been 60 imported cases. Many local authorities are imposing two-week quarantines on anyone who has travelled to virus-affected provinces or countries. - Agencies