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DUBAI: Home quarantine will be mandatory for Jordanian truck drivers passing through Al-Omari border crossing as Jordan tries to address a spike in coronavirus cases.

Those arriving from green and yellow countries will be isolated at home for seven days, while those arriving from red countries will be isolated for 14 days starting Sunday, state news agency Petra reported. Jordanian truck drivers currently in quarantine at the border crossing will be released as soon as the legal procedures are finalized, Petra added.

Jordan has divided inbound arrivals into green, yellow and red countries based on their COVID-19 prevalence and health procedures. A seven-day home quarantine is required for individuals coming from green and yellow countries after a negative coronavirus test, while those from red-flagged countries must home quarantine for 14 days after a negative PCR test result.

Jordan confirmed 1,246 new cases overnight, with 1,230 of them locally transmitted, and also 22 deaths. The country’s caseload is now 22,763 infections. and 166 fatalities.

A locally developed app, Dergham Al-Azzah-Aman, has been used to detect COVID-19 infections and transmission by tracing people who had a direct contact with infected cases, and determining the source of infection.

With nearly 2 million downloads, the app detected almost 23 percent of cases in Jordan the state news agency reported.

Jordan went into a nationwide 48-hour lockdown on Friday for the first time in months after a major spike in coronavirus infections raised fears the it could strain the country’s health care system.

The country has seen what Jordanian health officials said was an ‘exponential’ rise, with around 10,000 cases confirmed in just over a week – a near-doubling of the total number of infections.