Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — New coronavirus cases in the Kingdom showed a slight decline on Monday to stand at 2,593 infections as against 2,736 cases reported a day earlier. There are now 57,345 confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia, a ministry of health spokesman said.

Females make up 25 percent of the new infections, while males make up 75 percent, he said. Saudi citizens make up 44 percent of the new infections, and expats make up 56 percent.

The Kingdom also reported the highest daily number of recovered cases. There were 3,026 recoveries, taking the overall number of recovered cases to 28,748 which makes 50% of the total cases, health ministry spokesman Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdel Ali was quoted by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

The majority of the new cases was reported in the capital city Riyadh, where 642 infections were detected in 24 hours.

Makkah had the second highest number of new infections with 510 reported cases. There were 305 infections in Jeddah, 245 in Madinah, 174 in Dammam, 147 in Hufof and 133 in Al-Khobar.

Additionally, there were 71 cases in Qatif, 64 in Taif, 44 in Diriyah, 34 in Dhahran, 33 in Jubail, 23 in Hazm Al-Jalameed, 18 each in Buraidah and Al-Sehen, 16 in Yanbu and 10 in Bqeeq.

The other cases were recorded in cities and provinces around the Kingdom, health ministry spokesman Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdel Ali was quoted by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

Eight people died of the virus in areas across the country, the spokesman added. This brings the coronavirus-related death toll in Saudi Arabia to 320.

Plans to double testing

The ministry is planning to double its coronavirus testing program to conduct up to 36,000 COVID-19 tests daily, Dr. Al-Abdel Ali said on Sunday.

The Kingdom currently conducts between 15,000 to 18,000 tests daily as part of its efforts to curb the outbreak, he added.

Only a month ago, the Kingdom was conducting around 5,000 and 6,000 tests per day, he said, adding that at the time it was a significant number compared to other countries.