Saudi Arabia reported on Wednesday 4,919 new coronavirus cases as the Health Ministry announced it was adopting dexamethasone for treating patients.
The latest figures bring to 141,234 the number of infections in the Kingdom.
The ministry said 2,371 cases were reported in Riyadh, 282 in the holy city of Makkah, 279 in Jeddah, 156 in Madinah and 137 in al-Dammam.
Recoveries reached 91,622 with 2,122 people declared virus-free. Thirty-nine more fatalities took the toll to 1,091.
Dexamethasone, continued the ministry, will be administered to patients in intensive care and who need oxygen. It said that it has already commenced the treatment.
A cheap and widely used steroid, dexamethasone has become the first drug shown to be able to save the lives of COVID-19 patients in what scientists said is a “major breakthrough” in the coronavirus pandemic.
Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.
