JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) gave pregnant women the green light for receiving vaccinations after studies have shown they are safe for both mother and baby.
Preliminary reports on COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant women have shown that there are no “obvious safety signals.”
In the MoH press conference on Sunday, spokesman Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly stressed that the safety of mothers and children comes first and scientific committees are recommending that vaccines be available for pregnant women at any stage in their pregnancies.
Women who are planning their pregnancies have also been cleared and may receive the jab.
“We consider this an added opportunity to combat this pandemic and another step in ensuring the safety of members of society,” reassured Al-Aly.
Vaccine appointments can be made through the MoH’s Sehhaty app.
More than 8.2 million vaccines have been given so far at a rate of 23.5 doses per hundred.
INNUMBERS
412,216 Total cases
395,557 Recoveries
6,900 Deaths
Saudi Arabia’s daily case count has recently been fluctuating, with the number of active cases nearing the 10,000 mark, sparking fears that the rising number of serious cases could reach a critical point.
The spokesman noted that though the decline of numbers is important, fluctuating numbers can be an indicator that they are stabilizing and could improve as residents continue to adhere to precautionary measures.
With Sunday’s numbers, there are currently 9,759 active cases, of which 1,246 patients are in ICUs.
#الصحة تعلن عن تسجيل (953) حالة إصابة جديدة بفيروس كورونا (كوفيد-19)، وتسجيل (13) حالات وفيات رحمهم الله، وتسجيل (1028) حالة تعافي ليصبح إجمالي عدد الحالات المتعافية (395,557) حالة ولله الحمد. pic.twitter.com/xn2mcL8YkD
— و ز ا ر ة ا لـ صـ حـ ة السعودية (@SaudiMOH) April 25, 2021
The spokesman spoke of a case of a person with a positive infection spreading the disease to other members of their family.
Due to nonadherence to isolation protocols while awaiting their test results, members of the family spread the infection to close friends and other family members.
Fortunately, an elderly member of the family that visited the infected household was not infected as she received both doses of the vaccine and was immunized.
“We reiterate the importance of adhering to the isolation protocols and staying home at the onset of the infection and when exposed to an infected individual for your safety and the safety of your community,” said Al-Aly.
After five days of recording numbers above the 1,000 case mark, the kingdom recorded 953 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number to 412,216.
Riyadh recorded the highest case count at 382, Makkah followed with 212, and the Eastern Province announced 152. The rest of the regions recorded less than 50 cases each, with Najran and the Northern Borders recording nine cases each and Baha with only six new infections.
Some 1,028 recoveries were also reported, raising the total recovery count to 395,557. The Kingdom’s current recovery rate is holding steady at 95.9 percent.
Thirteen new fatalities due to complications from the infection were also reported, raising the number of mortalities to 6,900.
Over 50,000 PCR tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of tests to over 16.5 million.
