RIYADH — Ministry of Health's field teams have carried out more than 55,000 visits in all regions of the Kingdom, including more than 15,000 visits focused on hospitals, 1,054 visits to medical complexes, more than 1,800 visits to centers of the heart diseases and dialysis and more than 25,000 visits to pharmaceutical facilities, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.

The Health Ministry highlighted that its daily awareness-raising visits were increased from the beginning of February to raise the level of compliance of health institutions in hospitals, complexes, pharmacies and other health institutions, to ensure their commitment to preventive and precautionary measures to prevent COVID-19 and to the approved health requirements and mechanisms to manage this crisis and provide necessary requirements for patients safety.

The ministry added that more than 1,000 violations were found and referred to the violations committees, and that more than 100 closures were implemented, 25 of which were against hospitals and 55 medical complexes. Most of those closures were precautionary until the violations were corrected, as a large number of those institutions were enabled to resume activity after the correction with the issuance of the regular financial fines so that these violations do not occur again.

The Ministry of Health urged patients' health care providers to adhere to health requirements stipulated in the health regulations and preventive measures followed in the Kingdom in order to preserve the safety of patients and avoid the imposition of penalties that amount to a fine of SR 300,000, the closure of the facility, withdrawing the licensing of the health institutions and practitioners for a period of up to two years. — SG