On Friday morning, the COVID-19 Monitoring Committee held its 72nd 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.
The meeting was followed by a joint press conference, the participants in which included Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulaali, MOH spokesman and Dr. Ahmed Qattan, the Deputy Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs for Contractor Classification and Labor Housing Committee spokesman.
The MOH spokesman mentioned that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has jumped to 3,200,000 cases, of which more than one million cases have recovered to date. As for the COVID-19 death toll, it has jumped to 233,000.
As for the epidemiological situation in the Kingdom, he mentioned that 1,344 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the following cities: 282 in Riyadh, 237 in Madinah, 207 in Makkah, 171 in Al-Jubail, 142 in Jeddah, 114 in Dammam, 37 in Bish, 33 in Khobar, 27 in Taif, 14 Dariya, 12 in Al-Hafouf, 12 in Buraidah, 9 in Al-Nairyah, and Yanbu, 7 in Tabuk, 6 in Al-Zulfi, 5 in Al-Mikhwa and Al-Muzahmiya, 3 in Ras Tanura and Al-Kharj, 2 in Abqaiq and Hail, 1 case in Baljurashi, Al-Qunfudah, Arar, Rafha and Sajer.
This brings the total COVID-19 cases in the Kingdom to 24,097 cases, including 20,373 active cases, receiving the medical care and their health condition is stable. Of these, there are 117 critical cases, and the number of the new recoveries has amounted to 392, bringing the total recoveries to 3,555. The number of new deaths has amounted to 7, bringing the total deaths to 169. The new deaths occurred in Makkah and Jeddah, a 54 years old Saudi, and 6 non-Saudi, aged 46-75 years old. They mostly suffered from chronic diseases.
Of the 1,344 confirmed cases today, 224 were Saudis, accounting for 17% and 1,120 non-Saudi or 85%he said. 163 of them were females or 12% and 1,181 males or 88%. He added that 812 cases were detected through the active surveillance, accounting for 60% of the total confirmed cases.
Al-Abdulaali advised the elderly aged 65 years or over and those with chronic diseases and immunity problems to stay home and refrain from shopping during the hours when going out is permissible because they are more vulnerable to infection transmission. He also urged them to avoid crowded areas, to keep a distance from others, to cover mouth and nose with cloth mask, to wash and sanitize hands frequently, not touching surfaces and to use ATM cards instead of cash.
The coronavirus nasal swab test, used by the surveillance teams, is safe and not painful and also used for diagnosing many other diseases, he said, adding that “our colleagues are well trained to use it”.
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.
For his part, Dr. Ahmed Qattan, the Deputy Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said that the labor housing committee has taken quick measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus in labor housing. The committee is led by the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and includes the ministries of Industry and Mineral Resources, Interior, Human Resources and Social Development and Health, as well as the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu and Saudi Authority for industrial cities.
He said that the alternative housing initiative, launched by the committee two weeks ago, has provided 2,000 alternative residential sites across the Kingdom that consist of 170,000 rooms which can house 350,000 workers. The field committees have paid 1,800 visits covering around 170,000 workers in 1,260 residential sites, he said, adding that the numbers will be doubled at the end of Ramadan.
Qattan pointed out that 1,860 isolation rooms have been distributed to 760 housing sites, to be used for isolating those with COVID-19 symptoms until the arrival of MOH’s teams. Some workers have been moved to new 200 housing sites and 600 charities were directed to provide more than 40,000 meals to the labor housing across the Kingdom, he added.
Qattan went on saying that nearly 2,500 workers have been repatriated, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social development. In a joint statement, they called on the private sector companies to register their labor housing sites with “Eijar” platform, 2000 companies have already registered around 8,000 housing sites, he mentioned.
He called on all private businesses with housing compounds for their workers to take precautionary measures to curb the spread of the virus, including examining the workers twice a day, cleaning and disinfecting the building at last one time a week, as well as providing isolation rooms and contacting MOH for any suspected cases. He also urged them to register their highly populated housing with the new website launched by the committee for providing
alternative residential sites