RIYADH: Coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia are continuing to rise, the Ministry of Health has warned, while urging people to follow precautionary measures including social distancing.
Meanwhile, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, general supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), said that the Kingdom has provided more than $713 million to countries in need to support the fight against the pandemic around the world.
His comments came during a video meeting of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi).
“We live under difficult circumstances today due to the pandemic, in which the world faces many health and economic challenges,” he said, adding: “These challenges demonstrate the importance of unified global efforts to confront the pandemic.”
He said that during its presidency of the G20 Summit, the Kingdom provided $500 million to support international efforts to confront the virus and distribute vaccines.
“We — as members of the COVAX Gavi initiative — are still far from achieving our goals and objectives, but we are moving forward in carrying out our tasks,” Al-Rabeeah said, adding: “We have a great responsibility to reconsider increasing global production and distribution of the vaccine, and easing export restrictions, which all impede efforts in achieving our mission.”
Saudi Arabia reported 10 more COVID-19-related deaths on Friday. The Kingdom’s death toll now stands at 6,801.
The Ministry of Health reported 964 new cases, meaning that 403,106 people have now contracted the disease. There are 9,285 active cases.
According to the Ministry, 402 of the newly recorded cases were in Riyadh, 215 in Makkah, 157 in the Eastern Province and 39 in Madinah.
In addition, 918 patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 387,020.
Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 16,072,606 PCR tests, with 53,744 carried out in the past 24 hours.
Saudis and expats in the Kingdom continue to receive coronavirus vaccines, with 6,771,738 people having been inoculated so far.