Nayrouz News Agency : Jordan over the weekend registered 38 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the total number of confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic to 522, according to Health Minister Saad Jaber.

Among 14 new cases recorded on Saturday, six were truck drivers coming from outside the Kingdom, including a Jordanian national, Jaber said during the daily press briefing from the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management.

Also among the new cases were a European diplomat who recently arrived in Jordan and seven people who were in contact with a truck driver who tested positive for the virus on Wednesday in Mafraq Governorate, he said.

Jaber noted that the number of infections resulting from contact with the Mafraq driver, who resides in Al Khanaseri town in Mafraq Governorate, has now reached 35 cases.

Among the 24 cases confirmed on Friday, 18 had been in contact with the driver, Jaber said during Friday’s press briefing at the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management.

The majority of the patients are the driver’s relatives, nine of whom reside in Mafraq, three in Ramtha, and six in Irbid.

The cases from Friday also include five truck drivers who were tested at the Omari border crossing, two of whom are Jordanian and were transferred to Prince Hamzah Hospital, and one student who recently arrived in the Kingdom from Russia and has been in quarantine at the Dead Sea.

Four coronavirus patients left hospitals on Friday and two were discharged on Saturday, leaving 85 still receiving treatment. Epidemiological investigation teams on Saturday carried out 9,971 tests on Friday and Saturday, increasing the total since the beginning of the disease to 111,285.

The number of COVID-19 cases receiving treatment at King Abdullah University Hospital stands at 28, including six previous cases, Wael Hayajneh, member of the National Anti-Pandemic Committee and the official overseeing the coronavirus developments in the north, said on Saturday, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Hayajneh noted that 22 COVID-19 patients in King Abdullah University Hospital are contacts of the truck driver in Mafraq.

The official added that eight patients are receiving treatment at the hospitals of the Royal Medical Services, Petra reported.

Also speaking during Saturday’s joint press briefing, Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said that work is ongoing to prepare a quarantine site for truck drivers entering the Kingdom from abroad at the military school in Azraq

The minister also said that the second phase of evacuating Jordanian students and citizens stranded abroad will start on Sunday.

The government will start receiving applications as of Sunday from new countries and cities for the second phase, he said, adding that this phase of repatriation will be carried out via 16 new flights, with the first flight expected to arrive on May 15.

Adaileh also said that Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Omar Razzaz has headed a meeting of the coronavirus crisis cell to discuss the latest developments related to the pandemic, where the attendees stressed that Jordan set "a great model” in dealing with the disease when it managed to register zero cases for eight consecutive days.