Social Distancing: Arab Countries Fight Coronavirus in Their Own Way

Social distancing may be the most important weapon, and perhaps the only effective means to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Policies of self-isolation, quarantine and curfews differed from one country to another. While countries such as Tunisia and Jordan implemented a total curfew, Egypt decided to impose it only at night. The UAE has resorted to the “national sterilization” initiative, and the Palestinian Authority has implemented the security zones plan.

Just as the policies differ from one country to another, the concerns of citizens are not the same. Poverty deprives some of Lebanon’s residents of the “luxury” of staying at home and in Syria, the quarantine is more frightening than COVID-19.

The UAE

The curfew in the UAE was called “national sterilization.” Launched on March 26, the program is implemented overnight, between 8 pm and 6 am, while most state and private institutions are implementing the teleworking policy.

Movement was restricted across the cities in the evening, while normal traffic was allowed during the day. Throughout the curfew period, many areas and facilities in the Emirates are sterilized in several stages.

Dr. Farida Al Hosani, the official spokeswoman for the health sector in the UAE, said that more than 70 percent of the citizens, residents and visitors have committed to the new policies.

Lebanon

Three weeks after the government in Lebanon declared general mobilization to reduce the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, life seemed to return to normal in a number of regions. In Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon and other cities, traffic is back to normal, at a time when citizens are supposed to be committed to the measures that protect them from a virus that does not distinguish between the elderly and the young, the poor and the rich.

But in Lebanon, where the poor do not have the “luxury” of staying home, many have no choice but to risk their own life and that of their beloved, to secure a livelihood, choosing between starving to death and contracting a virus.

Mayor of Tripoli, Riad Yamaq, summed up the situation to Asharq Al-Awsat: “When we ask people to stay in their homes, they reply: secure our income.”

Pending the implementation of the government plan, the Tripoli municipality is working to secure about 30,000 food rations out of 50,000, which the city’s families need, but which are only enough for 20 days, according to Yamaq.

Syria

Despite her high fever and acute cough, a Syrian woman in Jdeidet Artouz refused to see the doctor to check whether she was suffering from the new coronavirus or the seasonal flu, out of her fear of being forced into a quarantine.

A police patrol accompanied by a health team in her city, located in the western countryside of Damascus, took eight persons suspected of being infected with the virus to a quarantine area, after they were reported through clinics and health units.

“After we saw the way those people were taken, I fear for my family and the unknown that we may face in quarantine. I am almost sure that if I am not really infected, I will contract the virus there,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.

So, the woman decided to keep silent about her illness and remain at home while following all the necessary health instructions.

A Syrian dissident residing in the Damascus countryside said security forces were treating people suspected of having the coronavirus as criminals.

“Moreover, lack of confidence in the health sector, which was destroyed during the war, reinforced the people’s fear of entering hospitals and being infected with the virus,” he underlined.

Jordan

The sleepless city, whose hustle and bustle could last until the early hours of the morning, appears void of life.

Reporters monitor this silence with their steady cameras, fixed in several points of Amman.

At 6 pm, sirens remind the population to stay home, with limited exceptions for doctors, journalists and some trucks providing basic services, such as food supplies and vegetables.

Jordanians spend their nights watching local news channels, which have devoted all their coverage to coronavirus cases.

Palestinian Territories

The Palestinian Authority has restricted the movement of people in order to ensure the implementation of social distancing. Strict instructions were issued, followed by the closure of cities, villages and camps, while allowing minor emergency cases through.

However, with the emergence of cases in other parts of Palestinian territories, the Authority locked down all cities and prohibited movement from one city to another before it launched a second phase that is isolating villages and rural areas from the main agglomerations.

The PA has also adopted the plan of “security zones”, which is based on isolating areas inside the cities, so that residents of these squares can obtain their needs, including vegetables, bread and medicine from inside the area itself.

Other measures include closing all borders and putting all people coming from abroad in a 14-day quarantine within specific centers across the different governorates.

In Israel, quarantine is imposed for a period of 14 days for every citizen coming from abroad, without exception, and for every resident or citizen showing any signs of infection.

Egypt

While Egyptians are separated by the curfew in the evening, they find themselves jammed in public transport in the morning, in search of their livelihood.

More than a week ago, Egyptian authorities imposed a temporary curfew from 7 pm to 6 am, and adopted a number of measures to ease crowding in government facilities, urging the private sector to adopt the same approach.

However, around 28.8 million Egyptians work in private institutions, which makes the need to avoid the crowds in public transportation almost impossible. Media outlets have launched “stay home” campaigns to raise awareness among the citizens.

Tunisia

Tunisia’s health and security authorities have registered many violations among citizens, who defied the general lockdown and the overnight curfew.

A number of Tunisians also violated the health ban by gathering in front of the post offices, in violation of social distancing, in order to obtain social assistance set by the government at around 200 Tunisian dinars (about 70 USD).

Algeria

A source from the Algerian Ministry of Health’s scientific committee, charged with following up the coronavirus epidemic, said that it submitted a report recommending the immediate implementation of a total lockdown in all regions of the country.

The partial isolation procedures in the capital and nine other states are not sufficient, according to the report, as hundreds of people still organize and visit popular markets.

Morocco

The health emergency in Morocco was approved on March 20. The government issued a special law to regulate it. The measures included social distancing and home confinement.

The law also stipulated the need to resort to government measures that would mitigate the social and economic impacts of quarantine, while maintaining the continuity of economic activity and providing the local market with the necessary products and materials.

The relentless exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah of recent days have stoked fears the longtime foes are moving inexorably towards all-out war, despite international appeals for restraint.

AFP correspondents in Jerusalem and Beirut talked to officials and analysts who told them what the opposing sides hope to achieve by ramping up their attacks and whether there is any way out.

- View from Israel -

Israeli officials insist they have been left with no choice but to respond to Hezbollah after its near-daily rocket fire emptied communities near the border with Lebanon for almost a year.

"Hezbollah's actions have turned southern Lebanon into a battlefield," a military official said in a briefing on Monday.

The goals of Israel's latest operation are to "degrade" the threat posed by Hezbollah, push Hezbollah fighters away from the border and destroy infrastructure built by its elite Radwan Force, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israeli political analyst Michael Horowitz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to pressure Hezbollah to agree to halt its cross-border attacks even without a ceasefire deal in Gaza, which has been a prerequisite for the Iran-backed armed group.

"I think the Israeli strategy is clear: Israel wants to gradually put pressure on Hezbollah, and strike harder and harder, in order to force it to rethink its alignment strategy with regard to Gaza," Horowitz said.

Both sides understand the risks of all-out war, meaning it is not inevitable, he said.

The two sides fought a devastating 34-day war in the summer of 2006 which cost more than 1,200 lives in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

"This is an extremely dangerous situation, but one that for me still leaves room for diplomacy to avoid the worst," said Horowitz.

Retired Colonel Miri Eisen, a senior fellow at Israel's International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, said that the Israeli leadership saw ramped-up military operations against Hezbollah as an essential step towards striking any agreement to de-escalate.

"The language they (Hezbollah) speak is a language of violence and power and that means actions are very important against them," she said.

"I wish it was otherwise. But I have not seen any other language that works."

For now, Israeli officials say they are focused on aerial operations, but Eisen said a ground incursion could be ordered to achieve a broader goal: ensuring Hezbollah can not carry out anything similar to Hamas's October 7 attack.

"I do think that there's the possibility of a ground incursion because at the end we need to move the Hezbollah forces" away from the border, she said.

- View from Lebanon -

After sabotage attacks on Hezbollah communications devices and an air strike on the command of its Radwan Force last week, the group's deputy leader Naim Qassem declared that the battle with Israel had entered a "new phase" of "open reckoning".

As Lebanon's health ministry announced that nearly 500 people had been killed on Monday in the deadliest single day since the 2006 war, a Hezbollah source acknowledged that the situation was now similar.

"Things are taking an escalatory turn to reach a situation similar to" 2006, the Hezbollah source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.

Amal Saad, a Lebanese researcher on Hezbollah who is based at Cardiff University, said that while the group would feel it has to strike back at Israel after suffering such a series of blows, it would seek to calibrate its response so that it does not spark an all-out war.

While Hezbollah did step up its attacks on Israel after its military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in late July, its response was seen as being carefully calibrated not to provoke a full-scale conflict that carries huge risks for the movement.

"It will most likely, again, be a kind of sub-threshold (reaction) in the sense of below the threshold of war -- a controlled escalation, but one that's also qualitatively different," she said.

Saad said that whether or not war can be avoided may not be in Hezbollah's hands, but the group would be bolstered by memories of how it fared when Israel last launched a ground invasion and the belief that it was stronger militarily than its ally Hamas which has been battling Israeli troops in Gaza for nearly a year.

"It is extremely capable -- and I would say more effective than Israel -- when it comes to ground war, underground offensive, and we've seen this historically, particularly in 2006," she said.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said last week that his fighters could fight Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and fire rockets at northern Israel at the same time in the event of an Israeli ground operation to create a buffer zone.

In a report released Monday, the International Crisis Group said the recent escalation between the two sides "poses grave dangers".

"The point may be approaching at which Hezbollah decides that only a massive response can stop Israel from carrying out more attacks that impair it further," it said.

Social Distancing: Arab Countries Fight Coronavirus in Their Own Way