Saudi Arabia’s daily COVID-19 case numbers rise by one-third

Saudi Arabia’s daily new COVID-19 cases rose by 32 percent to 2,585 on Tuesday, according to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health.

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The daily case count is at its highest since July 2020, although numbers are some way off the June 2020 peak of 4,301.

As well as the new cases, two virus-related deaths were recorded in 24 hours and there were 375 recoveries.

A total of 543,129 cases have now been detected in the Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic.

Deaths from the virus have reached 8,883.

Case numbers have been climbing worldwide as the highly-transmissible omicron COVID-19 variant spreads.

Saudi Arabia detected its first case of the omicron variant on December 1 that came from a North African country, the health ministry confirmed.

The Kingdom suspended flights from Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Angola, Seychelles, Mauritius and Comoros in response.

Saudi Arabia last week reimposed social distancing measures at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, as case numbers climbed.

Workers returned floor markings guiding people to social distance, which were removed on October 17.

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