Manama: The Gulf marked a grim milestone on Tuesday, registering more than 5 lakh confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus that has swept the GCC nations in less than six months.
Covid-19 has infected more than 5,01,216 people across the Gulf and killed at least 3,176 people, according to the official data from Worldometer.
Six nation GCC countries had registered 4 lakh cases on June 24. On July 7, after thirteen days of the 3 lakh mark, gulf nations added 1 lakh more cases.
The number of recoveries also continued to surge with 3,89,541 patients cured so far, while there were 111675 active cases, according to the updated official figures at 11 pm Tuesday.
The caseload in GCC has shown a steady increase. On April 14, the number of cases in the GCC were 15,000, or it took 75 days to reach it. However, after the next 27 days it recorded more than 75,000 cases.
The GCC states took 102 days to cross the 100,000-mark since the outbreak first reported on January 29 in the UAE. Another 16 days to reach the benchmark 200,000 cases, exactly on 27 May and then in another 15 days, or in June 11, it went past the 300,000-mark. And it took another 12 days to reach 4 lakh cases.
That means that just another fortnight, more than 1,00,000 new cases have been reported across the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia is the GCC’s worst-hit country by the virus, and is now the 13th nation in the world in terms of having the highest number of infections.
Saudi death toll crosses 2,000
Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf state with a population of about 3.37 crore, has the highest count at 2,17,108 cases and 2,017 deaths.
About 43 % of the total GCC cases are in Saudi Arabia. It accounts for more than 63 % of all fatalities in the GCC. Saudi has seen a sharp rise in the number of new cases for the past month, while fatalities are hovering at around 49 cases per day.
Saudi’s overall coronavirus deaths passed 2,000 on Tuesday as another 49 patients died due to the deadly virus on Tuesday. The Kingdom’s death toll now stands at 2,017.
Saudi recorded 3,392 new cases on Tuesday. The daily number of new cases in the kingdom first crossed the 1,000 threshold on April 18.
Citing some studies, the Health authorities said in April the virus could eventually infect up to 2,00,000 people in Saudi Arabia.
Elsewhere in the region, Qatar has the second largest outbreak in the Gulf with over 20 % of total GCC cases. A total of 600 new cases were reported in Qatar, while 1, 262 in Oman. Cases and deaths have been on the rise in Oman for the past few weeks. There were 601 Covid-19 cases in Kuwait, while Bahrain registered 500 more cases and the UAE confirmed 532 cases on Tuesday.
The total infections in the GCC now stands as: Saudi Arabia- 2,17,108, Qatar-1,00,945, UAE-52,600, Kuwait-51,245, Oman- 48,997 and Bahrain-30,321.
Over 94% Recovery in Qatar
Qatar is leading in the GCC with the highest numbers of recoveries- over 94 % or 94,903 recoveries out of the total 1,00,945 cases.
Qatar is now the world’s 21st country in terms of infections surpassing China where the outbreak started, as the country exceeded 100,000 cases today.
Bahrain has 84 % recoveries, while recoveries in Kuwait rose to 81 %. More than 79% of infected patients in the UAE now recovered from the virus.
In Saudi Arabia, more than 71% or 1,54,839 patients have been cured so far. In Oman, the recovery rate is 63.26%.
Kuwait and the UAE are in second and third positions in terms of death rates, respectively. In Kuwait, the death toll was 377 and in the UAE it was 326. Oman has 224 deaths, while Bahrain confirmed 98 deaths so far.
The world knew almost nothing about the virus in December, when reports of a new coronavirus started to surface in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has spread to nearly every country in the world, disrupting daily life for millions under lockdown measures meant to curb the virus’ rapid spread.
