COMBATING COVID-19

SAUDI BOLSTERS DEFENCES AGAINST PANDEMIC

Saudi Arabia’s vaccination rates continue to climb, even as COVID-19 infection rates subside. Saudi vaccination doses per 100 people stood at 45.22, much higher than the global average of 28.91 per 100 people, according to World In Data.

Meanwhile, infection rates hover around 1,000 on a seven-day average, compared to a peak of around 4,000 last year.

Overall, 15.5 million doses have been administered in the kingdom, across 590 inoculation centres across the country.

The rapid decline in infection cases means Saudi Arabia will soon reopen to foreign tourists, a senior tourism official told Reuters in May as the kingdom announced the lifting of quarantine restrictions for certain foreign arrivals.

Non-citizens arriving from certain countries and who were fully vaccinated against or recently recovered from COVID-19 would no longer be required to quarantine in designated government hotels, the Saudi authorities noted.

Saudi Airlines said on May 17 it resumed its international flights through 43 international stations in 30 destinations, after the Ministry of Interior's decision to lift the suspension of citizens' travel outside the kingdom came into effect.

Saudi Airlines confirmed that it will operate 153 scheduled flights every week from Riyadh, and 178 flights from Jeddah.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has vaccinated 98% of healthcare workers.

In May, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said, all public and private sector workers wishing to attend a workplace in Saudi Arabia will be required to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

"Receiving a coronavirus vaccine will be a mandatory condition for male and female workers to attend workplaces in all sectors (public, private, non-profit)," the ministry said on Twitter.

The government has approved Pfizer and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines for emergency use, while other vaccines produced by American companies Johnson & Johnson and Moderna have also been approved by the concerned authorities in Saudi Arabia for incoming visitors, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Saudi Arabia also unveiled the first ventilator made in the kingdom, as part of its larger effort to localise medical industries and achieve self-sufficiency in basic medical industries and health security in the country.

“We are proud today to register a qualitative achievement that joins other continuous achievements of our beloved homeland, through inaugurating the firs ventilator with international standards that was manufactured proudly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said Bandar Al-Khorayef, minister of industry and mineral resources and chairman of the board of directors of the National Industrial Development Center.

Riyadh-based Rowad Technology built the first ventilator, with model number PB 560 (Puritan Bennett 560). The company aims to produce around 6,000 devices each year, creating 50 jobs and with local content comprising 48% of the total materials.

The original PB 560 was designed and built by American-Irish medical technology company Medtronic.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the kingdom has received several applications to localise the production of ventilators. Manufacturing medical devices is among the most complicated and advanced industries, mainly as ventilators are directly connected to patients.

“This important step comes in a time the entire world is facing enormous challenges in light of the ongoing implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and what it causes of impacts on daily supply chains and basic equipment, mainly in the health care sector, where the outbreak of the pandemic contributed to speeding up plans for the development of industry in several priority sectors," Al-Khorayef said, stressing that the procedures followed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in dealing with the pandemic were appreciated by international organisations, in light of quick response of national factories to provide medical supplies and cover the high demand at the time.

The achievement was possible, thanks to the collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority, and the private sector.

 

A HELPING HAND

Even as Saudi authorities speed up vaccinations and ensure that citizens and residents have the healthcare they need, the kingdom continued to support African countries with investments and loans worth about USD 1 billion this year to help the continent’s economies recover from COVID-19.

The projects will be carried out by the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said in May in a speech to a debt relief conference in Paris.

“Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that supports COVAX and the kingdom is one of the countries that supports exporting vaccines to developing countries,” the Crown Prince said, referring to the global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 jabs to developing economies.

The kingdom is collaborating with the World Bank to pledge USD 100 million to create an International Fund for Comprehensive Tourism to support the pandemic-battered sector.