Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Using advanced molecular polymerase technology, Saudi Arabia has conducted over 4 million laboratory tests for coronavirus all over the country, making the Kingdom the first country across the globe to perform the task, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) cited the Saudi ministry of health as stating.

The ministry has set up the National Laboratory at the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, and over 50 regional laboratories in various regions — equipped with the latest gadgets — for the purpose. These laboratories are in addition to similar facilities available in hospitals and specialized units. The measure has greatly contributed to make a qualitative leap and improve the service by obtaining test results in a record period and strengthening the prevention of coronavirus spread.

The ministry is continuing to expand the exercise of conducting tests and is launching specialist laboratories for conducting the tests with the highest quality standards.

The ministry said that at the beginning of the outbreak of the pandemic in the Kingdom, the number of daily checks in various sectors was approximately 1,000. At present the total number of tests has exceeds 67,000 per day.

The ministry is continuing to intensify laboratory tests through many effective measures that contributed to the early detection of cases, and to take rapid measures to deal with them.

These measures include carrying out extensive tests through the ministry of health field teams conducting active survey of the population in crowded neighborhoods within different cities. Hence, the expansion of the examination has had an effective role in discovering more cases and at the same time it contributed to a rapid arrest of the spread of the pandemic.

The ministry has carried out the second phase of extensive testing to assess the general spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in the Kingdom. This is with the objective of continuing the precautionary and preventive measures that it is taking to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in order to preserve the health and safety of citizens and residents.