Coronavirus: Mecca new hotspot as Saudi Arabia detects 2,565 COVID-19 cases, 40 die

Saudi Arabia detects 2,565 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which raises the total number of confirmed infections in the Kingdom to 248,416, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.

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Mecca reported the highest number of new infections, with 224 cases. Meanwhile, Riyadh recorded 212 new cases, Jeddah recorded 189, and Al Hafouf recorded 182, according to the health ministry.

Forty people died due to complications caused by COVID-19. This brings the total number of virus-related deaths in Saudi Arabia to 2,447.

The total number of recoveries in the country is now 194,218, out of which 3,057 were confirmed on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia conducts more than 65,000 coronavirus tests per day as part of its efforts to contain the outbreak and limit the spread of the COVID-19, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the Kingdom had been conducting about 1,000 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests every day, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The risk level of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Saudi Arabia dropped in the past week, according to a COVID-19 risk level map developed by a team of health experts.

The map, which was developed by teams at Harvard’s Global Health Institute and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, determines the severity of an outbreak in a given country based on the number of new daily reported cases.

The coronavirus outbreak in Saudi Arabia had ranked at the orange risk level earlier this month– the second highest risk category – which means the virus is quickly spreading, data developed by a network of health research experts showed.

However, as of Monday, July 13, the outbreak in the Kingdom now ranks at the yellow level – the second lowest rank, one rank below orange.

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Saudi Arabia conducts over 65,000 coronavirus tests per day: Health ministry

Coronavirus risk level in Saudi Arabia drops: Expert’s COVID-19 map