Under the chairmanship of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfik bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Monitoring Committee has held its 32nd meeting today (Sunday) afternoon to review the updates and reports related to COVID-19. The meeting has been attended by the committee members, who represent relevant government agencies. The committee has discussed the epidemiological situation globally and the cases reported locally, as well as checking for their health condition. All precautionary measures carried out at the points of entry into the Kingdom will continue in full, the committee stressed, and will be further augmented. Hence, the committee has called on people to stay home except for essential needs.
MOH spokesman, Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulaali, stated that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide has surpassed 312,000 cases, with 93,000 recoveries and 13,400 deaths.
“So far, the Kingdom has reported 119 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 7 travel-related cases, one case isolated since arriving in the kingdom, and 72 Turkish cases, showing no symptoms, who have been early detected during the epidemiological surveillance for a previously announced case coming from turkey a weak ago, then isolated at a hotel in Makkah. While the rest (totaling 40 cases) are contacts with confirmed cases through occasions, meetings, or family gatherings,” said al-Abdulaali.
Al-Abdulaali added that these new cases were recorded in the following cities and governorates: 72 cases in Makkah, 34 in Riyadh, four in Al-Qatif, three in Al-Ahsa, three in Al-Khobar, one in Al-Qassim, one in Dhahran, and one case in Dammam; thus bringing the cumulative number of cases to 511 cases (278 Saudis and 241 non-Saudis, all of them are adults except 17 children), of which 18 cases have recovered and there have been no deaths so far, all praise is due to Allah.
Furthermore, the laboratories have conducted 23,000 tests with negative results except for 511 cases that have been announced confirmed cases. Also, 937-Service Center has received more than 280,000 COVID-19-related inquiries and consultations.
Concluding his statement, MOH spokesman has called on everybody to abide by the following safety tips, namely: avoiding handshakes, washing hands frequently with soap and water, avoiding gatherings, in addition to self-isolation for all overseas arrivals in the Kingdom for 14 days. Also, he advised people to avail of the COVID-19 symptoms self-assessment service via «Mawid» App, highlighting the importance of obtaining information from MOH and official sources, as well as contacting the 937-Service Center in case of developing symptoms, or having any inquiries or consultations.