JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday reported eight more COVID-19-related deaths, taking the overall toll to 8,505.
There were 321 new cases, meaning that 543,028 people had contracted the disease. A total of 4,141 cases remained active, of which 1,083 patients were in critical condition.
Of the newly recorded cases, 74 were in Riyadh region, 57 in Makkah region, 32 in the Eastern Province, and 20 in Madinah region.
In addition, the ministry said that 549 patients had recovered from the disease, increasing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 530,382.
The region with the highest recovery rate is Riyadh at 178, followed by Makkah at 87 and Eastern Province at 59.
More than 35 million people in the Kingdom had to date received a jab against COVID-19, including 1,577,843 elderly people. About 62.30 percent of the population had received the first dose while 38.46 percent had received both doses. At this rate, 70 percent of the population is expected to have received both doses by Oct. 8, 2021.
Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 27,097,223 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with 67,929 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 of the virus 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.
The ministry renewed its call on the public to register with the Sehhaty app to receive the vaccine, and adhere to the measures and abide by instructions.
Jeddah’s COVID-19 vaccination centers have intensified their efforts to inoculate students at different educational stages who wish to complete their two doses prior to returning to classrooms.
King Abdul Aziz University has allocated a vaccination center at its headquarters for staff, students and their families to provide immunization services through more than 50 clinics.
These clinics are staffed by volunteers from the university’s staff and students, in accordance with the best health standards and precautionary measures.
As part of preparations for physical attendance, the university also inaugurated the COVID-19 vaccine center at its branch in Rabigh, with a capacity of 1,000 appointments a day.
This is to raise the level of readiness and implement safety plans to tackle the virus before the start of the new academic year.
The General Directorate of Education in Jeddah also sought to ensure the commitment of all students to complete two doses of the vaccine to preserve public health.
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs reopened two mosques in two regions after temporarily evacuating and sterilizing them after two people tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of mosques closed and reopened after being sterilized to 2,018 within 199 days.
The Jeddah Municipality closed 33 commercial establishments and issued fines to 44 others for violating coronavirus preventive measures, during 3,860 monitoring rounds carried out on Tuesday.
The Eastern Province Municipality recorded 74 violations during 1,486 inspection rounds also on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the unvaccinated are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.
The study was based on more than 43,000 infection cases in Los Angeles between May 1 and July 15.
Director of the center, Rochelle Walensky, said in a statement: “Vaccines are the best tool we have to take charge of this pandemic.”
The coronavirus pandemic has affected over 214 million people globally and the death toll has reached around 4.47 million.
