Healthcare | Monday 2 March, 2020 2:17 am |

The Ministry of Health spokesperson, Dr. Mohamed Al-Abdali, affirmed that the Kingdom has not recorded any confirmed cases of infection with the new Coronavirus "COVID-19" until now, and thanked the wise leadership for all their efforts, care and concern for the health and safety of citizens.
This came during the joint press conference on the latest developments related to health procedures and preparations taken in the Kingdom regarding the new Coronavirus, with the participation of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, and the Ministry of Tourism.
Dr. Al-Abdali indicated that a high-level committee has been formed, consisting of a number of government agencies, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of National Guard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Media, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Tourism, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Food and Drug General Authority, Saudi Customs, the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control, and said: "The Kingdom represented by the Ministry of Health is closely following and monitoring all developments regarding this virus in addition to the concerted efforts from a group of agencies and government agencies to work to control and repel this virus."
He stated that the Ministry had taken precautionary measures that included the following:
1- Medical resources: equipping 25 hospitals to receive confirmed cases, providing 80,000 beds in all health sectors, 8,000 intensive care unit, and 2,200 isolation beds.
2- In the ports: Conducting more than 6000 medical examinations in the air and land ports, applying the quarantine of those suspected of being infected, applying the passport disclosure to all arriving at the international ports, and health awareness of the aircraft and the ports.
3- Monitoring and control: circulating the procedures manual for the new Coronavirus for health personnel in all health facilities, monitoring the epidemiological situation with the World Health Organization through the command and control center, intensifying visits by field teams to ensure the readiness of emergency departments to receive suspected cases, and updating the electronic monitoring system (Hosn), which guarantees that the notification, upon entering the system, will reach the rapid response teams in order to respond immediately, and create a dedicated webpage for disease updates and everything related to it, and ensure that all medical supplies are available within the Kingdom.
4- Diagnostic capabilities: The identification of the national laboratory at the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control to be the only reference laboratory for examining cases to ensure the quality of work and following up all samples and cases in all regions of the Kingdom.