Saudi Arabia, UAE close cinemas amid ongoing coronavirus outbreak

As the spurt in cases of coronavirus escalated across the countries, the authorities of Saudi Arabia and UAE have ordered to shut down all the cinema halls amid the ongoing crisis.

Mumbai: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have joined the growing list of countries that have closed cinemas amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

According to news reports, the UAE, Gulf region's biggest market in terms of the box office and Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that they would shut down all theatres for a minimum of two weeks.

The move makes Bahrain, Oman and Egypt the only Middle East countries to still have cinemas open for business.

Authorities in the UAE Emirate of Dubai tweeted: "In line with ongoing efforts to safeguard public health, The Department of Economic Development directs all cinemas, theme parks, amusement games & electronic game centres, bodybuilding & fitness gyms & spring camps licensed in Dubai to halt all their activities & services until end of March 2020."

In Saudi Arabia, which registered 118 cases of coronavirus, authorities have shut down malls except for food stores and pharmacies and prohibited restaurants and cafes from serving meals.

Meanwhile, in India, the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 107. So far, two deaths due to the COVID-19 have been reported in the country, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city in December last year, has so far spread to more than 100 countries, infecting over 1,30,000 people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus a pandemic.

With inputs from ANI.