Rawan Radwan

JEDDAH: An average of 401,937 doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being administered each day in Saudi Arabia, according to official figures. Health authorities said they plan to increase this number to 500,000.

Khaled Al-Abdulkareem, assistant deputy minister for primary healthcare and supervisor of the Health Ministry’s vaccine program, told TV news channel Al-Ekhbariya that the Kingdom has enough vaccine supplies to reach this target.

More than 20.5 million doses have been administered to date in the Kingdom, and more than 58.9 percent of the Kingdom’s 34.8 million population has received at least one dose.

On Tuesday, Saudi health authorities reported 1,295 new infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Kingdom to 503,734. Riyadh region accounted for the highest number of new infections, 327 cases, followed by Makkah region with 283, the Eastern Province with 189 and Asir with 135.

A further 14 people have died as a result of conditions related to COVID-19, raising the death toll in the country to 8,006. A total of 10,845 cases remain active, with 1,426 patients receiving critical care.

The Health Ministry said an additional 946 people have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 484,883. An additional 106,989 PCR tests for the virus were conducted in the past 24 hours in the Kingdom.

Saudi authorities said that they continue to take action against individuals and commercial establishments found to be violating COVID-19 health protocols.