Saudi Arabia announced a $265 million deal with a Chinese firm to ramp up coronavirus testing as the kingdom eased a 24-hour curfew, except in hotspots including Islam's holy city of Makkah, AFP reports.

The agreement with China's Beijing Genome Institute (BGI) will provide for nine million Covid-19 tests, the government said in a statement.

It said in line with the agreement “500 experts, specialists, and technicians” would come from China to conduct the tests.

The deal, which has a total value of 995 million riyals, also includes “the establishment of six large regional laboratories in a number of areas in the kingdom, including a mobile laboratory with a production capacity of 10,000 tests daily”, it added.