Saudi Arabia reports single-day spike in new cases

Author May 16, 2020

1 minute read

Saudi Arabia saw a steep increase in the daily number of coronavirus cases with 2,840 new infections reported during the past 24 hours, raising the total to 52,016, according to the health ministry.

Also, there were 1,797 recoveries on Saturday, taking the overall number of recovered cases to 23,666, spokesman Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdel Ali was quoted by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

Meanwhile, 10 more people succumbed to the deadly virus taking the total number of COVID-19 related fatalities in the Kingdom to 302.

Riyadh topped the list of new cases with 839 infections, followed by Jeddah (450), Makkah (366), Madinah (290) and Dammam (180).

There were 89 cases in Diriyah, 80 in Qatif, 78 in Al-Khobar, 75 in Jubail, 57 in Taif, 50 in Yanbu, 49 in Hufof, 38 in Tabuk, 24 in Buraidah, 20 in Hafr Al Batin, 19 in Wadi Al Dawasir, 15 in Dhahran and 13 in Bqeeq. The rest of about 100 infections were reported from small cities and towns across the country.

The newly detected cases were confirmed after an additional 18,285 tests were administered. Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 570,360 screenings throughout the country, the spokesman said.

The ministry continues to urge people to only go out when absolutely necessary and to avoid crowds in order to not contract or spread the virus.

In its latest efforts to slow the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia announced last week that it will impose a 24-hour lockdown for the Eid holiday that marks the end of Ramadan next week.