Cabinet limits social gathering

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s Cabinet meeting yesterday instructed authorities to limit social gathering of more than 150 individuals in the Kingdom to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

The meeting reviewed the latest measures taken to contain the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and stressed the importance of abiding by the health guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This came as His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister chaired the weekly Cabinet meeting at Gudaibiya Palace.

The Cabinet commended HM the King’s Royal Decree pardoning inmates for humanitarian reasons and positive response received by the e-volunteer platform that further supports the Kingdom’s efforts to Combat Coronavirus.

The meeting also underscored the Kingdom’s efforts and achievements in safeguarding and protecting human rights on the anniversary of the Arab Human Rights Day and condemned terrorist attack targeting the Prime Minister of Sudan, Abdalla Hamdok.

COVID-19: Cash directly from the public account Revealing the decisions taken in a post-cabinet press conference, Cabinet Secretary-General, Dr Yasser bin Issa Al-Nasser said the Cabinet decided to grant the Minister of Finance the authority to withdraw directly from the public account – with a limit of 5 per cent of the total appropriations of current-year budget expenditures.

The decision, Cabinet said, is to meet urgent expenses related to the outbreak that do not have budget appropriations and cannot be deferred to the budget for the coming years.

The meeting also reviewed efforts made to mitigate the effect of the temporary suspension of studies in public and private schools following the virus outbreak.

HRH Crown Prince reviewed efforts to enhance the role of interactive e-educational portals and e-learning systems and employing digital educational content and other e-educational services as needed.

As of now, academic content, presented by a group of teachers and specialists, is broadcast up to 8 hours per day on the second sports channel of Bahrain TV and YouTube.