Tigray State Orders Cafes, Restaurants Closure

Authorities in Tigray Regional State have ordered the closure of all cafes and restaurants beginning tomorrow, March 30, 2020, as an effort to ward off the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

It is part of a series of measures a response taskforce chaired by the Vice President of the regional state, Debretsion G. Michael (PhD), has made today. It banned landlords from evicting tenants, suspended any increases in rental fees, and obliged local and international travelers entering the Regional State to report to the nearest health office as of March 10, 2020.

Last Thursday, the council of the Regional State had declared a two-week state of emergency and formed a response force to execute the decree. Upon its establishment, it suspended large social gatherings such as weddings and restricted the number of people who could attend funerals to 20. With last week's decree, hotels, cafes and restaurants were allowed to operate after taking the necessary preventive measures, including designating handwashing areas and providing their employees with protective gear, such as face masks and gloves. Users of these businesses were also told to sit at least one metre away from one another.

However, the cafes, restaurants, coffee houses and juice bars will stay closed for two weeks with bars, nightclubs, coffee shops, large markets and billiard halls remaining closed for the coming two weeks.

So far, Ethiopia has reported 21 confirmed cases, of which three of them are in Adama (Nazareth) town, which is the first regional town to report the case. Tigray Region has not reported a single positive case.

Tracking COVID-19

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260139

Total cases Reported In Ethiopia

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785

New cases Reported In Ethiopia

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52934

Active cases Reported In Ethiopia

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23

New Deaths Reported In Ethiopia

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3795

Total Deaths Reported In Ethiopia

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203408

Total Recovered Reported In Ethiopia

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777

Critical in Ethiopia

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Source: Coronavirus monitor API

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