Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry will roll out huge quantities of COVID-19 vaccines received from various suppliers during the next few days, confirmed Saudi Minister of Health Tawfiq Al-Rabiah.
The Kingdom is one of the first countries in the world that began offering vaccines on Dec. 17, he noted.
In a speech delivered remotely during the 20th Hajj and Umrah Research Forum, Al-Rabiah stressed that the Kingdom has dealt with the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic since last February.
He revealed that 18 government agencies tasked with handling the pandemic hold meetings daily to follow up on developments linked to the virus and take necessary measures to curb its spread.
“The Ministry of Health is working at present to flatten the epidemiological curve, and is also working seriously with various agencies to implement the precautionary measures in a larger way after noticing some laxity on the part of the public,” he said.
The minister indicated the large size of health facilities, as Saudi Arabia has made 60 percent increase in the number of beds in the intensive care units, reaching 13,000 beds.
“Today, there are more than 230 Tetamman clinics available across the Kingdom to make coronavirus tests, in addition to the extensive examination procedures,” he added.
Separately, Education Minister Hamad Al-Sheikh talked about Saudi Arabia attaching great importance to research and innovation, and for supporting scientists and researchers in Saudi universities to become globally competitive.
Saudi Arabia has been ranked 14th internationally for its COVID-19 university research, rising from its previous 17th ranking, according to the database of the Web of Science.
He said that this achievement was a continuation of the efforts of the Kingdom in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. This reflected the Kingdom’s capabilities when it came to managing crises.
Al-Sheikh said that Saudi universities had published 84 percent of the Kingdom’s COVID-19 research, and that the Kingdom had published 915 scientific papers by local scientists since the outbreak of the pandemic.
He thanked Saudi universities that contributed to publishing the research papers as well as the faculty members and researchers who were serving their community.
