JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case count has again risen above the 1,000 mark, just one week after the Kingdom and Muslim world celebrated Eid.
On Wednesday, 1,213 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, the same number as recorded in the country on Aug. 20 last year.
And for the first time in almost nine months, four regions logged more than 100 cases. Makkah region reported 349 new infections, Riyadh 334, Eastern Province 148, and Madinah 104. Jouf was the only region in single figures, with seven.
A total of 436,239 people in Saudi Arabia have now contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Wednesday’s statistics took the number of active cases in the Kingdom to 8,367. In some good news, there were 12 fewer patients in critical care but Saudi health authorities were still concerned as 1,372 individuals remained in serious or critical condition.
Officials confirmed 910 more people had recovered from COVID-19, raising the total recovery count for the country to 420,671. Data showed the Kingdom’s recovery rate had fallen to 96.2 percent.
Thirteen COVID-19-related deaths were recorded on Wednesday, upping the national toll to 7,201.
Meanwhile, 88,859 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of PCR checks so far carried out in the Kingdom to more than 18.1 million.
On the vaccine front, the Ministry of Health’s Sehhaty app confirmed (through its Twitter account) that only those over the age of 18 were eligible to receive a jab.
To date, more than 12.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered meaning almost 35 percent of the Kingdom’s 34.8 million population had received at least one injection.
Authorities in the Kingdom reiterated that gatherings of more than 20 nonfamily members were still prohibited and that if caught, violators of the rules would face fines.
In Jazan, 121 women were recently fined for meeting at a wedding hall in breach of preventive measures. Jazan regional police spokesman, Maj. Naif Abdulrahman Hakami, said penalties were also applied to the hall’s owner, the event’s host, and guests.
