The government will ease curfew hours imposed nationwide to curb the spread of the coronavirus as of January 2, 2021, according to Minister of State for Media Affairs Ali Al Ayed.

As of Saturday, the partial curfew will be reduced by two hours, starting at 11pm and 12 midnight for institutions and public movement respectively, and ending at 6am.

The government announced a new set of measures for the new year in a press conference at the Prime Ministry on Wednesday evening.

Ayed said that "in light of the epidemiological developments in the Kingdom, the government was careful to make safe and gradual plans for the reopening of sectors".

Direct and indirect flights to and from the United Kingdom will continue to be suspended. Similarly, Friday lockdown and workplace occupancy restrictions will remain in effect, noted Ayed.

"Our initial plan was to reopen sectors and allow citizens and the economy to breathe, but with the new strand of the virus in the UK and the new wave of cases in the world, we were careful to balance between the health, social and economic aspects,” added the minister.

Deeming the decisions as "safe, gradual and balanced”, Ayed noted that they will be revisited every two weeks.

"Reopening or closing all sectors depends on people’s will to protect themselves and others. As we have seen, we were successful in flattening the curve because people helped us,” he added. 

Minister of Health Nathir Obeidat urged citizens to sign up for the vaccine, as the Kingdom has signed agreements with several internationally approved vaccines such as Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and others.

"We have created a joint committee that is currently drafting a plan for the distribution and setting priorities. I urge citizens to sign up for the vaccine so we can move on from the pandemic this coming year. We do not want to waste this chance,” added the minister.

Calling the current epidemiological situation with the new strand of the virus as "unstable”, Obeidat said that the cases that have arrived from the United Kingdom are currently under inspection.

"Our health system is currently in excellent shape, especially with the new field hospitals. We hope it will remain that way,” he concluded.