Manama: Saudi Arabia recorded 4,387 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time on Tuesday, taking the tally to 1,90,823, a health ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
The country’s death toll has reached 1,649 after 50 new fatalities were recorded within the past 24 hours. The new death toll is also believed to be the highest single-day casualty since the outbreak.
The city of Hafouf saw the highest number of new cases with 980 infections. Riyadh had the second most with 342, a significant decrease for the city compared to previous weeks.
The Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Mohammed al-Abd al-Ali said the spike in cases is directly due to the lack of adherence to the precautionary measures including social distancing. He urged the people to abide by the rules implemented to slow the spread of the virus.
Despite an increase in infection cases and fatalities, Saudi Arabia's recovery numbers continue to increase as well. In Saudi Arabia, more than 68% or 130,766 people have been cured so far. The Kingdom reported 3,648 new recoveries on Tuesday alone.
There are 58,408 active cases in the Kingdom as of Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf state with a population of about 3.37 crore, is the worst-hit country in the GCC both in infection and fatalities. About 42.53 % of the total GCC cases are in Saudi Arabia. It accounts more than half of all fatalities in the GCC— or 61%.
Saudi Arabia saw a spike in coronavirus cases and related-deaths after a relaxation of movement and travel restrictions on May 28. Afterward, the number of cases steadily climbed so that by June, the country was registering between 3,000 to nearly 4,000 cases a day, while fatalities are hovering at around 38 cases per day.
Meanwhile, Gulf coronavirus infections neared 4.5-lakh mark, as new cases stacked up quickly in Saudi, Qatar and Kuwait. According to the latest data, a total of 448,601 people have contracted the virus across the six nation GCC, while death toll reached 2,694 on Tuesday.
