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Ministry battles MERS ‘rumors’

May 24, 2014

Ministry battles MERSRiyadh/Jeddah, May 24: The Health Ministry has stepped up efforts to reach out to people across the city to raise awareness about protection from the deadly coronavirus amid increasing concern among people.

The ministry reported three new cases of the MERS-CoV and the death of a 46-year-old man on Friday.

The new patients included one each in Jeddah, Madinah and Makkah. Four more patients were discharged from hospitals in Riyadh and Makkah following a full recovery.

In Makkah, the patient was a 19-year-old man suffering from diabetes.

In Madinah, the patient was a 20-year-old woman. Doctors described her condition as stable.

The latest figures revealed by the Ministry of Health have brought the total to 554 infections which include 178 deaths.

Dr. Sami Badawood, director of Ministry of Health in Jeddah, has urged people in general and students in particular not to believe rumors circulating on social media.

Health authorities in the city are fully equipped to deal with MERS or any other virus, he said.

The ministry has been targeting school students to raise the level of awareness and is now focusing on private sector and government offices.

The ministry is also starting centers to promote awareness about deadly diseases at airports and has started a similar unit at the Jeddah Islamic Port.

“We have conducted awareness camps in 48 boys schools for 23,432 students and 103 girls schools for 38,211 girls in Jeddah,” said Badawood.

“We have also visited a number of government and private sector offices in the city where Health Ministry team met with 12,236 employees to explain preventive and precautionary measures against coronavirus,” he said.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Riyadh, Apr 27: The government of Saudi Arabia has signed a SR995 million (approx. Dh972m) contract with China to provide Covid-19 tests for nine million people in the Kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency, SPA, reported that the decision came "as a result of a phone call made today (Sunday) between the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Chinese President Xi Jinping."

The contract includes providing necessary equipment and supplies, making available of 500 Chinese specialists and technicians who are specialised in performing tests, establishing six large regional laboratories throughout the Kingdom; including a mobile laboratory with a capacity of performing 10,000 tests per day. Saudi cadres will also be trained to conduct daily tests and comprehensive field tests, under the new agreement

The contract was co-signed by the National Unified Procurement Company and Chinese company Huo-yan Laboratories by Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor at the Royal Court, on behalf of the Government of Saudi Arabia, and Chinese Ambassador to the Kingdom Chen Weiqing, as a representative of the Chinese Government.

The contract is one of the largest contracts that will provide diagnostic tests for the novel Coronavirus.

Tests were also purchased from several other companies from the United States, Switzerland and South Korea, bringing the number of available tests to 14.5 million, covering around 40 percent of Saudi Arabia's population, SPA added.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

Beirut, Aug 4: A massive explosion has shaken the Lebanese capital of Beirut, with a very high number of casualties expected.

A warehouse at the Beirut Port caught fire on Tuesday afternoon, triggering a huge explosion, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Several smaller explosions were heard before the bigger one occurred.

Abbas Ibrahim, the head of Lebanon’s General Security, said that “highly explosive materials” confiscated earlier had been stored at the site.

Footage shared on social media captured the moment of the bigger explosion, with a colossal shock wave seen traveling fast across several hundreds of meters and shrouding the area in thick smoke.

The blast left enormous material damage to the surrounding buildings and structures. But it was not immediately known how big an area was affected.

There was also no immediate casualty count. Graphic amateur video from the scene showed bodies strewn on the ground, with their clothes blown off.

The NNA said rescue operations were underway. Ambulances were seen heading toward the scene in central Beirut.

Lebanese LBC television channel quoted Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hasan as saying that the blast had caused a “very high number of injuries” and “extensive damage.”

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud said an unspecified number of firefighters dispatched to extinguish the initial fire had been killed in the explosion.

“As they were putting out the fire, the explosion took place and we’ve [lost them],” he said, breaking down on live TV.

The explosion comes at a time when the Arab country is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades, and amid rising tensions with Israel.

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News Network
April 29,2020

Dubai, Apr 29: Saudi Arabia reported 1,325 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 21,402, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday (April 28).

Meanwhile, the ministry reported 169 recoveries today, with total recoveries in the kingdom at 2,953. There are 125 cases in intensive care.

The ministry also confirmed 5 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 157.

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