Saudi seals off Shiite-majority region, closes schools over coronavirus

Saudi authorities Sunday cordoned off the eastern region of Qatif, a stronghold of the kingdom's Shiite minority, in a bid to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus as the total number of cases rose to 11.The lockdown on Qatif, home to around 500,000 people, is the first action of its kind across the Gulf region that has confirmed more than 230 coronavirus cases -- most of them people returning from religious pilgrimages to Shiite-majority Iran."Given that all 11 recorded positive cases of the n