Bollywood Actor Arjun Rampal Meets and Greets Fans at Thumbay Hospital Dubai 

Jeddah, Mar 21: Saudi government ministers on Friday announced a war chest of more than SR120 billion ($32 billion) to fight the “unprecedented” health and economic challenges facing the country as a result of the killer coronavirus pandemic.

During a press conference in Riyadh, finance minister and acting minister of economy and planning, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, unveiled a SR70 billion stimulus package to support the private sector, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and businesses worst-hit by the virus outbreak.

And the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has also sidelined SR50 billion to help the Kingdom’s banking sector, financial institutions and SMEs.

Al-Jadaan said the government had introduced tough measures to protect the country’s citizens while immediately putting in place a financial safety net. He added that the Kingdom was moving decisively to address the global COVID-19 disease crisis and cushion the financial and economic impact of the outbreak on the country.

The SR70 billion package of initiatives revealed by the minister will include exemptions and postponement of some government dues to help provide liquidity for private-sector companies.

Minister of Health Dr. Tawfig Al-Rabiah noted the raft of precautionary measures that had been introduced by the Kingdom in cooperation with the private sector and government agencies to combat the spread of the coronavirus, highlighting the important contribution of the data communication services sector.

He reassured the Saudi public that the Kingdom would continue to do whatever was required to tackle the crisis.

“This pandemic has a lot of challenges. It’s difficult to make presumptions at this moment as we’ve seen; many developed countries did not expect the rate of transmission of this virus.

“We see that the reality of the situation is different from what many expected. The virus is still being studied and though we know the means of transmission, it is transmitted at a very fast rate, having spread to many countries faster than expected.

“We see that many countries have not taken the strong precautionary measures from the beginning of the crisis which led to the vast spread of the virus in these countries,” Al-Rabiah said.

He pointed out that social distancing would help slow the spread.

Al-Jadaan said the Saudi government had the financial and economic capacity to deal with the situation. “We have large reserves and large investments, but we do not want to withdraw from the reserves more than what was already announced in the budget. We do not want to liquidate any of the government’s investments so we will borrow.

“We have approval from the government after the finance committee raised its recommendations to increase the proportion of the domestic product borrowing from 30 percent to 50 percent. We do not expect to exceed 50 percent from now until the end of 2022,” he added.

The government would use all the tools available to it to finance the private sector, especially SMEs, and ensure its ongoing stability.

The finance minister said that at this stage it was difficult to predict the economic impact of the pandemic on the private sector, but he emphasized that international coordination, most notably through G20 countries and health organizations, was ongoing.

On recorded cases of the COVID-19 disease in the Kingdom, Al-Rabiah said: “Many of the confirmed cases are without symptoms, this is due to the precautionary measures being considered.

“As soon as a case is confirmed, we contact and examine anyone who was in direct contact with the patient. This epidemiological investigation, is conducted on a large scale to investigate any case that was in contact with the patient.”

Al-Jadaan also announced the formation of a committee made up of the ministers of finance, economy and planning, commerce, and industry and mineral resources, along with the vice chairman of the board of the Saudi National Development Fund, and its governor.

The committee will be responsible for identifying and reviewing incentives, facilities, and other initiatives led by the fund.

Committees had also been established, said Al-Jadaan, to study the impact and repercussions of the coronavirus crisis on all sectors and regions, and look at ways of overcoming them through subsidies or stimulus packages.

Kuwait, Jun 28: Measures imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in Kuwait are believed to have increased suicide cases in the country, according to a media report.

Forty suicide cases and 15 failed attempts, mainly among Asian expatriates, have been recorded in Kuwait since late February, Gulf News quoted the Al Qabas newspaper report, citing sources as saying on Saturday.

Investigations into the majority of cases have revealed that those who committed suicide had experienced psychological and economic troubles due to dire financial circumstances after their employers stopped to pay them as a result of economic fallout from the coronavirus-related measures.

In one case, an expat livestreamed his suicide while chatting with his fiancee on a social networking platform, the newspaper report said.

Suicide cases have increased by around 40 per cent since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, according to the sources.

Some 70 to 80 suicide cases are recorded annually in Kuwait. Last year, they reached 80 suicides against 77 in 2018.

"Suicide cases have started to go up in Kuwait during the coronavirus pandemic due to fear, anxiety, isolation and instability experienced by people and absence of daily aims that could help the person to spend time regularly as before," the newspaper quoted social psychology consultant Samira Al Dosari as saying.

Uncertainty for some expatriates, whose countries have refused to take them in, is another motive for attempting suicide, according to Jamil Al Muri, a sociology professor at the Kuwait University.

"This is in addition to greed of the iqamat traders, who have brought into the country workers in names of phantom companies and abandoned them on the streets," he added.

Starting from Tuesday, Kuwait will embark on the second phase of a stepwise plan to bring life to normal, Gulf News reportd.

According to Phase 2, a nationwide night-time curfew will be reduced by one hour to run daily from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. for three weeks.

Kuwait has so far reported 44,391 COVID-19 cases, with 344 deaths.

Abu Dhabi, May 25: Dusty weather to persist in the UAE on Monday as well with a chance of rainfall in parts of the country, the national Met department reported.

According to the NCM, the weather today will be fair to partly cloudy, with a chance of some convective clouds formation by afternoon - eastward and northward - extending to some internal areas that may be associated with some rainfall.

The weather will get humid by night and Tuesday morning over some coastal areas.

NCM predicts a wet Eid break.

طريق كلباء #الشارقة ⁧#المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد⁩ ⁧#أمطار_الخير⁩ ⁧#أصدقاء_المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد⁩ ⁧#حالة_الطقس⁩ ⁧#حالة_جوية⁩ ⁧#هواة_الطقس⁩⁩ pic.twitter.com/i4gjYfgTwj

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 25, 2020

أمطار غزيرة على فلي (الشارقة)
#أمطار#أمطار_الخير #استمطار #تلقيح_السحب #المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد
Heavy rain over Fili (Sharjah)
#Rain #Cloud_Seeding #NCM

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 25, 2020

أمطار غزيرة على المنيعي (رأس الخيمة)
#أمطار#أمطار_الخير #استمطار #تلقيح_السحب #المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد
Heavy rain over Al Manaie (Ras Al Khaimah)
#Rain #Cloud_Seeding #NCM

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 25, 2020

Sharjah Police issued a weather warning as heavy rain flooded roads in Sharjah's Kalba among other areas.

#Alert #NCM pic.twitter.com/RnFy0WtK3H

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 25, 2020

مليحة ⁧#الشارقة⁩ ⁧#المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد⁩ ⁧#أمطار_الخير⁩ ⁧#أصدقاء_المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد⁩ ⁧#حالة_الطقس⁩ ⁧#حالة_جوية⁩ ⁧#هواة_الطقس⁩ #عبدالله_القايدي pic.twitter.com/rKhJG4mIzN

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 24, 2020

طريق #الشارقة #كلباء #المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد #أمطار_الخير #أصدقاء_المركز_الوطني_للأرصاد #حالة_الطقس #حالة_جوية #هواة_الطقس #عبدالله_الشامسي pic.twitter.com/YDX91G6jaZ

— المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@NCMS_media) May 25, 2020

ننوه الأخوة السائقين بتوخي الحيطة والحذر أثناء القيادة وخاصةً على الطرق الخارجية للإمارة وذلك بسبب هطول أمطار الخير،
كما ندعو السائقين إلى توخي الحيطة والحذر والابتعاد عن أماكن جريان الاودية وترك مسافات كافية بين المركبات وتخفيف السرعات والحرص على التعامل مع الطريق بحذر

— شرطة الشارقة (@ShjPolice) May 25, 2020

Moderate to fresh winds will gain strength during the day causing blowing dust and sand.

The sea will be slight to moderate in the Arabian Gulf and in Oman Sea.

Earlier on Sunday, a weather alert was issued by authorities as moderate to heavy rain - accompanied with hail - lashed parts of the UAE. A rainbow in Dubai skies cheered up residents, celebrating a unique Eid this year amid the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic - by mostly staying home.