Saudi Arabia announces first case of Coronavirus

 

Saudi Arabia has recorded its first infection with the new coronavirus.

The patient is a Saudi national who arrived from Iran through Bahrain, the Saudi Health Ministry said on Monday.

The patient is currently quarantined at hospital, it said, adding that samples were taken from all those who were in contact with the patient, for tests.

According to report, the person did not disclose to Saudi authorities that they had visited Iran before Bahrain.

The Kingdom’s health ministry said it sent an infection control team immediately to check on the citizen, and to take a sample for laboratory examination, as part of its precautionary measures.

The results confirmed the man was infected with COVID-19.

Although the novel coronavirus has spread to 62 countries, the vast majority of the cases have appeared in five countries, UN Health Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said.

Ghebreyesus argued that it was still possible to avert a global spread.

READ: Coronavirus: More than 3,000 dead, 88,000 infected across 67 countries

Of the more than 88,900 global cases of COVID-19 cases, 90 per cent were reported from China, most of them from the outbreak epicentre in Hubei province.

Outside of China, more 8,700 cases have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, with four countries accounting for 81 percent of this figure, WHO chief said.

He added that South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan are causing the biggest concerns.

“This is not a one-way street. We can push this virus back,” he says, arguing that all countries can contain the virus if they take decisive action.