- We need to put in more effort in coming period to see positive outcome: health ministry
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced that in the past 24 hours there had been no reports of any patients being admitted to hospital intensive care units (ICUs) in the country with illnesses related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The news was greeted by health officials as a positive sign that the Kingdom’s precautionary measures to stop the spread of the virus, along with its treatment methods, were paying dividends.
However, another 334 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Wednesday, taking to 373,702 the total number of people in the country who had so far contracted the virus. There were currently 2,611 active cases, of which 480 patients were receiving critical care.
Of the latest cases, 169 were in the Riyadh region, with the Eastern Province reporting 62, Makkah 42, and the other Saudi regions less than 20 each. The Jazan and Tabuk regions both reported just two cases. “We need to put in more effort in the coming period to see a positive outcome,” a Ministry of Health spokesman said, adding that although infection rates were showing signs of declining, they had not yet reached a stable point.
The number of people recovering from COVID-19 had outweighed new cases for the third day in a row, with the latest figure of 349 increasing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 364,646, a recovery rate of 97.57 percent and rising.
Four new COVID-19-related fatalities were reported, upping the death toll to 6,445.
A further 49,608 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, meaning more than 13.1 million checks had now been carried out in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, ministry officials announced that a new vaccine center capable of dealing with 700 people a day would be opening in the Northern Borders region city of Arar. A similar center at Makkah’s Umm Al-Qura University — the first of five planned for the holy city — was now also operational with a daily handling capacity of 4,000, a figure expected to rise over the coming weeks.
The Kingdom recently received a new batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and resumed its national vaccine rollout program to cover all regions of the country. So far, 462,812 people have received the jab.
Separately, eight mosques have been temporarily closed in four areas after a number of COVID-19 cases were confirmed among worshippers. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah, and Guidance said 87 mosques had been shut for the same reason in the past 10 days, but 70 had since been allowed to reopen after satisfying health and safety rules.
The ministry reiterated the need for all worshippers to adhere to social distancing protocols, wear masks, and carry their own prayer rugs.
During the latest 24-hour period, the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing carried out 24,671 field inspections across all 13 Saudi regions and recorded 1,808 breaches of health and safety protocols.
Officials closed 786 establishments for violations that included failure to check visitors’ temperatures, lax disinfection and cleaning of shopping carts before and after use, and noncompliance with regulations surrounding the wearing of masks.
