Oman extends nightly COVID-19 lockdown

DUBAI (Reuters) - Oman on Thursday extended a nightly lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, with movement and commercial activities to be restricted between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. until further notice, the government said.

Cases in the country of around 4.5 million people, which has continued to impose movement and commercial restrictions on and off through the pandemic, have started to rise again after showing a steady fall since mid-June.

Oman has in the past two months accelerated what had been the slowest vaccine rollout in the Gulf.

By mid-April, Oman had given at least one dose to around 5% of the eligible population. This had increased to 35% by July 8, according to health ministry data.

Oman had on Wednesday recorded 295,535 coronavirus cases and 3,802 deaths.

(Writing by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Alex Richardson)