Sunday in press statements, a member of the National Committee for Epidemics, Bassam Al-Hijjawi revealed that he expects the Friday total lockdown to be canceled and the curfew hours to be pushed to 11 PM or midnight instead of 9 PM starting next year.

He indicated that a gradual opening is expected for sectors which have been closed due to the pandemic, stressing that all these measures will be subject to continuous evaluation by the government.

Hijjawi also expected a decrease in coronavirus infections next month, to less than 1,000 infections per day, and deaths to less than five per day, considering that this expected decrease will encourage the opening of schools according to specific principles, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

Notably, in previous statements the Minister of State for Media Affairs and the official spokesperson of the government, Ali Al-Ayed had said that the government will announce new measures to deal with the pandemic during this week, depending on the health situation in the Kingdom.