AMMAN
— Al-Hussein park, one of Amman’s largest parks, was popular with visitors
before the onset of the pandemic. However, since then it has become a
vaccination site, leaving people to wonder when the park will open to the
public once more.
اضافة اعلان
The director
of Al-Hussein Public Park, Raed Dodakh, said in an interview with
Jordan News, “Before
closing, (the park) received 1,500–2,000 visitors, and on Thursdays and Fridays,
it received 8,000 visitors.”
He added that
the decision to close the park to general visitors was taken in order to “facilitate
the vaccination campaign.”
Some 21 tents were built to receive vaccinations through the drive-thru service
in five garages at Al-Hussein Park and since April, between 1,000 and 5,000
people are vaccinated daily at the park from 8:30am to 4pm. In some cases, the
vaccination service continues until 9pm.
Dodakh said that the park was closed for the safety of visitors and because it
is difficult to control visitors around the vaccination tents, as there are
electrical installations for computers, cooling and lighting devices, and no parking
spaces for visitors’ vehicles.
He added that the vaccination drive-thru service had to be adjusted so as not
to obstruct the traffic on King Abdullah II Street. The Greater Amman
Municipality (
GAM) subsequently made an alternative plan and found places for
visitors by opening the Children's Museum and the Car Museum.
Additionally, Dodakh stated that “two months ago, we allowed visitors to enter
from 6 to 9:30 in the morning to exercise.” This arrangement has continued
since then.
An informed
source at the GAM said that there was a decision to open Al-Hussein Park and
stop giving vaccinations there at the beginning of September.
Rami Al-Tal, a regular visitor to the park, said: "I was very annoyed by
the decision to close these parks. I have been walking here early in the morning
for six years, four times a week, and my family and I would come to attend the
activities organized by the GAM, and I have many friends who also walk."
Another regular park visitor, Nevin Khalil, stated: "My children and I
often came to these parks to run in the fresh air, and we wished that GAM would
locate to other places to give vaccinations."
The spokesperson for the National Center for Security and Crisis Management,
Ahmed Naimat, told
Jordan News: "We understand the visitors' complaints
and their desire to visit parks, but the health priority calls for that, and
the danger of this virus lies in the possibility of transmission of the virus at
close distances.”
Nuaimat stressed: "There is a vigorous discussion about the opening of
parks, and we are waiting for a health recommendation in this regard.”
He pointed
out that for Jordan’s drive-thru services, the vaccination rate has reached
25,000 to 30,000 people per day, and the process does not take more than 7
minutes per person.
“This process was one of the reasons for the success of the national
vaccination campaign, and 6 million doses have been administered until now,”
said Nuaimat.
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