JEDDAH: With back-to-school instructions sent out to students and parents, the Ministry of Education announced students over 12 years old would be required to have completed their coronavirus disease vaccinations to be admitted back to school grounds.

Minister of Education Hamad Al-Asheikh said: “University students and those of the like who have not completed two doses of the vaccine will not be allowed to attend, and their registration will be suspended. They will be considered absent until the second dose is completed.

“Middle and high school students who have completed two doses are required to attend educational facilities, and those who did not complete the two dose vaccination will be considered absent until the two dose vaccination is completed.”

He added: “We urge our sons and daughters, their parents, teachers, and faculty members to be careful and take the initiative to take the vaccine.”

A total of 409 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the Kingdom on Saturday, with a total of 541,610 people in Saudi Arabia having contracted the disease.

The Ministry of Health reported 710 new recovered cases, taking the total number of recoveries to 527,899. There are currently only 5,242 active cases, of which 1,162 are critical.

The highest recorded number of infections was in the Riyadh region at 126, followed by Makkah with 66. The rest of the Kingdom’s regions are recording less than 50 cases, with Al-Jouf registering just five on Saturday.

Eleven new deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 8,469.

More than 33.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered at a rate of 96.64 doses per 100 people. Over 61.19 percent of the country’s population have been inoculated with at least one dose.

There were 68,672 PCR tests carried out in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of tests conducted in the Kingdom to more than 26.7 million.