The cabinet agreed yesterday (Tuesday) to extend the State of Emergency, from August 1^st to September 30^th, citing the need to control the spread of COVID-19, especially the new Omicron sub-variants which are spreading rapidly.

The current Emergency Decree is due to expire on July 31^st and this new extension will be the 19^th. The Emergency Decree was first imposed throughout the country on March 26^th, 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition parties and rights organisations have urged the government to scrap the Decree, claiming that it is being used to suppress free expression and street protests by pro-democracy groups, but to no avail.