50% of COVID-19 deaths suffered chronic illnesses

Fifty percent of coronavirus-related deaths in the Kingdom are of patients suffering chronic diseases, said Saudi Ministry of Health as it shared an analysis of the critical cases in intensive care units on Tuesday.

“This indicates that this group is at high risk and would experience complications if infected with COVID-19,” said Ministry of Health spokesman Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly.

He added: “Our medical team is well trained and capable of handling COVID-19 patients with multiple illnesses and such complications.”

According to the analysis, 50 percent of admitted patients suffer chronic illnesses, 60 percent of them are on ventilators. “Sixty percent of these admitted patients are need of artificial respiration, mostly those above the age of 30,” he said, adding that 44 percent of the critical cases are between the ages of 31 and 60.

“We never wish to see anyone reach the level of needing critical care, but we assure you that we are always ready and capable of giving critical care to all those who need it. We are also happy to share that these critical cases are being well taken care of and are showing signs of recovery,” said Al-Abd Al-Aly.

He called on people to take the self-evaluation exam on the ‘Mawid’ app, use the ‘Sehhaty’ app for those who are not experiencing symptoms, and visit the ‘Tetamman Clinics’ for those who are showing symptoms. There are more than 200 Tetamman Clinics across the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom recorded 41 new COVID-19-related deaths on Tuesday, increasing the total to 1,052.

There were 4,267 new cases reported in Saudi Arabia, meaning 136,315 people have now contracted the disease. There are 45,723 active cases, 1,910 of them are in critical conditions.

According to the Health Ministry, 1,629 of the newly recorded cases were in Riyadh, while Jeddah recorded 477 and Makkah recorded 224.

The health ministry also announced that 1,650 more patients had recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 89,540.

Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 1,144,267 tests for COVID-19.