Many of these countries are yet to report cases of the virus. On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced similar travel bans to the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, South Korea, Egypt, Italy and Iraq. Saudi citizens and foreign residents have 72 hours to return to the kingdom before the ban will take effect on them. Qatar, a tiny wealthy emirate next to Saudi Arabia, reported an alarming spike of 238 new cases on Wednesday, all residents of the same compound. By far, however, the biggest source of the infection in the region is Iran, located across the Persian Gulf from Saudi Arabia and already hosting more than 9,000 cases, including several politicians and top officials.

Source: Washington Post March 12, 2020 04:39 UTC