Bahrain clamps down on restaurants and schools to contain COVID-19 - ministry

FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a face mask carrying a shopping bag walks in a local Souq (traditional market), following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Manama, Bahrain, October 16, 2020. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Bahrain will suspend dine-in services at restaurants and cafes and move public and private schools to remote learning for three weeks to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry said it had detected a new variant of coronavirus in a number of cases, without specifying which kind. The new lockdown measures will come into effect on Sunday.

There has been an uptick in coronavirus cases in the Gulf kingdom since December. The country registered 459 new cases on Wednesday, adding to a total of nearly 100,000 since the start of the pandemic, with 370 deaths.

FILE PHOTO: A woman takes her appointment for a second dose of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, at Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre (BIECC), in Manama, Bahrain December 24, 2020. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

The small island state has the third highest rate of vaccinations per capita in the world so far, according to the Our World in Data website, which is run by an Oxford University research programme.

Bahrain offers its citizens either the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or one manufactured by Chinese state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm free of charge.

The kingdom also approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Monday for emergency use.

(Writing by Lisa Barrington and Raya Jalabi; Editing by David Clarke)