On Monday morning, the COVID-19 Monitoring Committee held its 61st meeting. Chaired by the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, the meeting was attended by the committee members, who represent the relevant government agencies. During the meeting, all relevant COVID-19 updates and reports were reviewed. The committee has discussed the global epidemiological situation, as well as the cases reported locally and their health condition. All precautionary measures carried out at the points of entry into the Kingdom will continue in full, the Committee stressed, and will be further tightened. The Committee commended the citizens’ compliance with the curfew, and called on them to stay home, and refrain from going unless necessary.
The meeting was followed by a joint press conference, the participants in which included Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulaali, MOH spokesman, and Nader Al-Wahibi, GOSI Governor Assistant for Insurance Affairs.
The MOH spokesman mentioned that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has amounted to more than 2,400,000 cases, of which 635,000 cases have recovered to date. As for the COVID-19 death toll, it has jumped to 166,000 deaths.
“Speaking of the Kingdom,” Al-Abdulaali said, “We have 1,122 new confirmed cases, of whom 874 cases through active surveillance or 78% of the total cases. 83% of them are non-Saudis and 17% Saudis”. He mentioned that the new cases were reported in the following cities: 402 in Makkah, 200 in Riyadh, 186 in Jeddah, 120 in Madinah, 78 in Dammam, 63 in Al-Hafouf, 39 in Jubail, 16 in Taif, 9 in Al-Zulfi, 5 in Khobar, 3 in Abha, 3 in Buraidah, 3 in Najran, 1 in Dariyah, 1 in Yanbu, and 1 in Al-Madha.
He mentioned that this brings the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Kingdom to 10,484 cases, of whom 73% are non-Saudis and 27% Saudis, and 77% males and 23 females between the ages of less than 60 days to 96 years. Of these, there are 8,891 active cases receiving medical care, including 88 critical cases, whereas the health condition of the rest is reassuring. The number of new recoveries is 92, bringing the total recoveries to 1,490 cases. And the number of new deaths is 6, bringing the total deaths to 103 cases. The new deaths are all non-Saudis, 5 in Makkah and 1 in Jeddah, most of them with chronic diseases, and their ages between 23-79 years, he said.
He said the Health Minster’s address includes a number of advises and instructions to be followed by all of us during the month of Ramadan. He reiterated that anyone who develops symptoms, or is willing to get medical advice, can use the self-assessment application ‘Mawid’, or call 937, which works around the clock.
For his part, Nader Al-Wahibi, GOSI Governor Assistant for Insurance Affairs urged the private sector companies to apply for the support as per the initiative of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to compensate the private sector workers affected by the consequences of COVID-19. In most cases the approval of the request is immediate, he said.
He said the request for compensation is open through
GOSI website, starting with registration and then completing all required information.
The compensation will be paid after one month from the application date, meaning that if a company applied during April, its workers will be entitled for compensation on May 1st.
He urged the private facilities to submit their applications during the specified periods, confirming that GOSI is receiving several requests to benefit from this initiative.
Al-Wahibi expressed his thanks to the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ quick response and focus toward mitigating social and economic consequences of COVID-19 on the private sector.
He said that GOSI is honored to implement this initiative and provide support to the private sector companies impacted by coronavirus pandemic. Within a short time it was able to harness all its staff and automated system to process the requests for compensation, he added.