On Thursday morning, the COVID-19 Monitoring Committee held its 71st meeting. Chaired by the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, the meeting was attended by the committee members, who represent the relevant government agencies.
During the meeting, all relevant COVID-19 updates and reports were reviewed. The committee has discussed the global epidemiological situation, as well as the cases reported locally and 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 tightened. Meanwhile, the Committee commended the citizens’ compliance with the curfew, and called on them to stay home, and refrain from going unless absolutely necessary.
Following the meeting, Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulaali, MOH spokesman mentioned that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has jumped to over 3,200,000 cases, of which 985,000 cases have recovered to date. As for the COVID-19 death toll, it has jumped to 228,000.
As for the epidemiological situation in the Kingdom, he mentioned that 1,351 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the following cities: 440 in Riyadh, 392 in Makkah, 120 in Jeddah, 119 in Madinah, 110 in Dammam, 35 in Jubail, 29 in Al-Hafouf, 23 in Al-Qatif, 17 in Taif, 13 in Al-Zulfi, 11 in Buraidah, 8 in Khulays, 7 in Al-Khobar, 4 in Tabuk, 3 in Ras Tanura and Al-Muzahmiya, 2 in Al-Jafr and Hail, and 1 case in Khamis Mushayt, Dhahran, Al Nairyah, Al-Miznab, Al-Baha, Al-Wajh, Umluj, Hafr Al-Batin, al-Qunfudah, Al-Qurayat, Rafha, Wadi Ad-Dawasir and Sajer.
This brings the total COVID-19 cases in the Kingdom to 22,753 cases, including 19,428 active cases, receiving the medical care and their health condition is stable. Of these, there are 123 critical cases, and the number of the new recoveries has amounted to 210, bringing the total recoveries to 3,163. And 5 new deaths were reported, bringing the total deaths to 162. The new deaths occurred in Riyadh and Jeddah, two of them were Saudis.
Of the 1,351 confirmed cases today, 17% were Saudis and 83% non-Saudi, 14% of them females and 86% males, he said. He added that 1,054 cases were detected through the active surveillance, accounting for 78% of the total confirmed cases.
The MOH spokesman underlined the importance of wearing cloth face mask when going out to help reduce transmission of droplets and infection, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). He also reiterated the importance of committing to social distancing, washing hands properly, covering mouth and nose and avoiding gatherings.
He described as untrue the information circulated yesterday that the active surveillance teams go inside homes to perform examination. “If we have to do so, it will be in accordance with a work mechanism and specified schedules”, he said. He called on everyone to obtain information from official sources.
The MOH spokesman reiterated that anyone who develops symptoms, or is willing to get medical advice, can use the self-assessment application ‘Mawid’, or call 937 which works around the clock.