The Government announced that the exercise on the restriction-testing declaration for the restricted area in Jordan finished earlier than expected and that the declaration has been revoked.

The affected roads have also gradually reopened, it said.

The Government exercised the power under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation on January 23 to make a restriction-testing declaration, requiring people within the specified restricted area in Jordan to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing.

They had to stay in their premises until all people subject to compulsory testing in the area were tested and the test results were mostly ascertained.

Fifty-one temporary specimen collection stations were set up in the restricted area on the same day to have people’s combined nasal and throat swab samples collected.

About 7,000 people got tested during the effective period of the declaration and 13 confirmed cases were found as of midnight today. Patients and their close contacts have been transferred to quarantine centres or hospitalised.

Meanwhile, the Government visited 3,650 households, of which around 473 did not answer the door. Such households include those in buildings in the restricted area which have not been evacuated and those with confirmed cases or undergoing quarantine, while some units are possibly vacant.

The Government said it will take measures to follow-up and trace households in the district which have not responded.

Following the home visits and virus testing on January 23, government staff were assigned the next day to request people in premises within the restricted area who had not undergone testing to do so as soon as possible. About 110 such people were arranged to get tested immediately.

More than 3,000 staff from 16 departments, including 1,600 officers from disciplined services, were mobilised to implement the declaration and compulsory testing notice, the Government added.

To ensure the arrangement of three meals for those subject to compulsory testing, the Government provided 6,500 food packs and other kinds of food. Masks, cleaning tools and hand sanitisers were also provided for them.

Since there are a number of ethnic minorities in the restricted area, the Home Affairs Department arranged over 50 working staff who can speak Nepali, Urdu and Hindi to assist ethnic minorities in undergoing testing in the specimen collection stations and help explain the declaration’s arrangement.

It also produced leaflets in three ethnic minority languages for people in the restricted area and recorded the leaflet content as videos using the three languages.

Eight support service centres for ethnic minorities also uploaded relevant information to their websites and Facebook pages.

Additionally, the department set up a dedicated hotline for ethnic minorities restricted by the declaration to make enquiries and seek assistance. Around 240 enquiries were handled.

The Government hopes this temporary inconvenience will completely cut the local transmission chains in the district and ease residents' worries and fear so that they will regain confidence in resuming social and business activities in the area.

It also expressed gratitude to people subject to compulsory testing for their support and understanding, and their co-operation. 

The Government also thanked all participating government staff and testing agencies for their hard work which enabled the smooth implementation of the declaration within a short period.

Those who had been in the restricted area for more than two hours in the past 14 days, even if they were not present in the area at the time when the declaration took effect, must comply with the compulsory testing notices and get tested as soon as possible, it stressed.