Saudi Arabia records 1,039 new COVID-19 infections, 13 deaths

Saudi Arabia recorded 1,039 new coronavirus cases, 1,061 recoveries and 13 deaths in 24 hours, the country’s health ministry reported on Friday.

The number of active COVID-19 cases rose to 9,750, including 1,311 of which are critical.

The majority of Wednesday’s cases were recorded in Riyadh and Mekkah, accounting for 386 and 274 coronavirus cases respectively.

Friday’s numbers caused the country’s death toll to rise to 7,045, total recoveries mounted to 407,650 and total recorded cases since the beginning of the outbreak in the Kingdom to 424,445.

The Kingdom’s vaccination program has been steady, with over 10 million doses already administered, Saudi’s Ministry of Health announced on Thursday.

All public and private sector employees in Saudi wishing to work from their workplaces are now required to be vaccinated, the human resources ministry announced on Friday. However, the ministry did not specify when this rule would be implemented.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development tweeted on Friday: “Receiving a coronavirus vaccine will be a mandatory condition for male and female workers to attend workplaces in all sectors (public, private, non-profit)”.