Gatherings blamed for hike in COVID-19 cases in Saudi Arabia

JEDDAH: Saudi Health Ministry’s spokesman has attributed the increase of COVID-19 cases among children and women to social gatherings.

A total of 22 percent of Monday’s recorded cases were women and 7 percent were children.
“The increase was due to crowded social gatherings in a way that violates health advice and instructions,” said Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly. “This is shown in the figures; in recent days, there was an increase in the number of females and children, the number of Saudi nationals has also increased.”
He said that the increase in cases indicated that certain activities had returned in a negative manner and described this as “very unfortunate.”
Epidemiological investigations revealed that some cases were linked to gatherings of 30 or more people, he said. This was a violation of the precautionary measure set in place by the authorities.

“Please abide by the instructions and stay away from anything that violates them, especially gatherings or leaving your homes for unnecessary purposes; abide by the recommended hygienic behavior, such as washing your hands and avoiding touching surfaces,” Al-Aly said.
The Kingdom recorded a total of 1,966 new cases on Monday, 38 percent of which are Saudis, bringing the total number of recorded cases to 41,014. There are currently 28,022 active cases, 149 of whom are in critical condition.
The spokesman announced 1,280 new recoveries, meaning that 12,737 people have now recovered from COVID-19, while nine new deaths were reported. The death toll stands at 255.
The latest fatalities were two Saudis and seven expats from Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Taif. They were aged between 27 and 86 and most had chronic diseases.
Al-Abd Al-Aly said that the 255 recorded deaths accounted for 6 percent of the total number of infected cases.