Commerce Ministry reiterates importance of COVID-19 precautionary measures despite reassuring infection figures

Saudi Arabia announced 36 more deaths from COVID-19 and 1,363 new cases of the disease on Wednesday. (SPA)

• The total number of recoveries in the Kingdom has increased to 274,091
• A total of 3,506 people have succumbed to the virus in the Kingdom so far

JEDDAH: The Saudi Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday reiterated the importance of sticking to government rules aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) despite reassuring figures on infection rates.
The Kingdom recorded another daily fall in the number of new cases of COVID-19, but officials warned members of the public against letting down their guard.
“Despite the reassuring drop in numbers, we still have a big responsibility in front of us, whether it is the commercial sector, markets and shops, or shoppers and consumers. We are still at a phase that is under the slogan ‘return carefully,’” said the ministry’s official spokesman, Abdulrahman Al-Hussein.
The ministry carried out more than 3,500 inspection tours in the past three weeks, identifying 82 violations, statistics which showed that 98 percent of commercial establishments were adhering to precautionary measures, he added.
“Supervision tours are still ongoing in commercial establishments, markets, shops, and restaurants in all regions of the Kingdom, in cooperation between the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in addition to the regions’ municipalities,” said Al-Hussein.
The Ministry of Commerce has advised shop owners to monitor customer numbers in order to ensure social distancing of 2 meters can be maintained. Other measures include checking the temperature of visitors at the entrance to premises, sanitizing all surfaces, shopping carts, and baskets, and adding floor stickers for social distancing.
Al-Hussein said commercial establishments had the right to deny entry to visitors showing temperatures of above 38 degrees and those not wearing a face mask.
The ministry also announced that from Aug. 25 all retail outlets would be required to provide facilities for electronic payment, to avoid the need for cash transactions.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday reported 1,363 new cases of COVID-19, meaning 302,686 people in the Kingdom had now contracted the disease. There were 25,089 active cases, with 1,725 patients being in a critical condition.
The assistant minister of the Saudi Ministry of Health, Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly, announced that another 1,180 patients had now recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 274,091.
He said that the number of confirmed cases had seen a 72 percent decrease from its highest point, critical cases had dropped by 25 percent, and 92 percent of patients with COVID-19 had recovered from the disease since the start of the pandemic.
Al-Aly added that there were 36 new COVID-19-related deaths, raising the total number of people who had died from the disease in the Kingdom to 3,506.
Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 4,439,484 polymerase chain reaction tests, with 61,067 carried out in the last 24-hour period.