JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health confirmed 323 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total number of those infected to 339,267.
Of Sunday’s confirmed cases, 12 percent were children, 85 percent adults, 3 percent elderly, while 42 percent were female and 58 percent male.
A total of 593 new recoveries were recorded, bringing the number to 325,330 and raising the Kingdom’s recovery rate to nearly 96 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s active cases have decreased below the 9,000 case mark — there are currently 8,893 cases. According to Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly, two-thirds of critical care patients are recovering and the number is increasing.
A total of 25 new deaths were reported on Sunday. There were 5,043 patients who died due to complications from the infection.
There are currently 826 patients in critical care units, an 11.9 percent decrease since last week.
The Kingdom continues to advance in its efforts to detect coronavirus cases with the use of polymerase chain reaction tests that have reached more than 7 million so far, 38,239 of which were conducted in the past 24 hours.
INNUMBERS
339,267 COVID-19 cases
325,330 Recoveries
5,043 Total deaths
Al-Aly refuted claims that the virus might have mutated, leading to the appearance of a second wave of infection in a number of countries.
“There are no facts that can corroborate that claim, instead, the surge in numbers was due to the communities’ return to pre-COVID activities while disregarding safety and precautionary measures,” he said.
“We don’t want to test this phenomenon and return back to recording high numbers. With our (community) adherence to precautionary measures until the end of the pandemic we will maintain a downward slope in recorded cases, which in part will be the key to combat a second surge.”
The Kingdom tops the list of Arab countries in its scientific publications of clinical trials and COVID-19 research papers.
“With the Kingdom’s great cadres and Saudis leading in their given research fields, it’s with their hard work and effort that Saudi Arabia ranked 25th place globally thanks to its scientific contributions,” Al-Aly said.
