Ministry of Education: Coronavirus "hoax" aimed to stop school

Muscat: There are no cases of the MERS coronavirus in North al Batinah schools, according to the Directorate General of Education in Northern al Batinah.

A spokesperson for the Directorate General said to Times of Oman, "This seems to be specifically aimed to stop children from going to schools in North al Batinah in general and Sohar specifically."

According to him, a person had circulated a voice recording through social media saying that there were two known cases of the Middle–East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) in schools in Sohar.

"They had said there was one in a boy's school and another in a girl's school," he added. "This isn't true. We have teams checking up on the schools on a regular basis and there is nothing out of the ordinary in North al Batinah schools."

A statement by the Directorate General read, "The Directorate General in North al Batinah refutes what has been said in a circulated audio recording, which stated that there were cases of the 'coronavirus' in Sohar schools. The directorate is in contact with the Directorate General for Health Services and they have confirmed that the situation is normal and that there is no cause for concern."

On Saturday, The Ministry of Health said, “The Ministry of Health announced in the latest updated data on MERS that the number of cases recorded this year has reached 10, which resulted in four deaths, across different governorates of the Sultanate.”