JEDDAH: A Saudi citizen suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) complications has been flown home from Jordan with the help of a specialized Ministry of Health medical team.
The transfer was carried out on the directives of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The unidentified patient had developed complications after contracting the virus and required life support during transportation to the Kingdom in a specially equipped aircraft.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Jeddah municipality carried out 4,124 inspection tours to check commercial establishments’ compliance with COVID-19 precautions, resulting in 54 premises being closed for a range of violations.
Municipality officials said 19 sub-municipalities were monitored and inspection teams uncovered 144 breaches of health and safety rules including failure to enforce social distancing and the appropriate wearing of face masks, and lapses in measuring customers’ temperatures or requesting to see their status on the Tawakkalna app.
The municipality added that checks would continue as part of efforts to limit the spread of the virus and urged anyone suspecting a breach to report it on 940 or via the Balady app.
FASTFACTS
• Saudi Arabia reported 1,251 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
• The death toll has risen to 7,377 with 15 more virus-related fatalities.
• The number of cases in the Makkah region continues to rise.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday reported 15 more virus-related deaths, taking the overall toll to 7,377. There were 1,251 new cases, meaning that 451,687 people in the country had now contracted the disease. A total of 9,871 cases remained active, of which 1,443 patients were in critical condition.
Of the newly recorded cases, 367 were in the Makkah region, 349 in the Riyadh region, 148 in the Eastern Province, and 87 in the Madinah region.
In addition, the ministry said 1,026 patients had recovered from the disease, increasing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 434,439.
Saudi Arabia had so far conducted 19,307,011 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with 92,433 carried out in the past 24 hours.
Testing hubs and treatment centers set up throughout the country have dealt with hundreds of thousands of people since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Among them, Taakad (make sure) centers provide COVID-19 testing for those who show no or only mild symptoms or believe they have come into contact with an infected individual. Tetamman (rest assured) clinics offer treatment and advice to those with virus symptoms such as fever, loss of taste and smell, and breathing difficulties.
Appointments for both services can be made via the ministry’s Sehhaty app.
Meanwhile, 14,294,935 people in the country had to date received a jab against COVID-19.
