RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health recorded on Friday 178 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the Kingdom to 361,903. The health ministry also reported 9 more virus-related deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths from complications caused by COVID-19 to 6,168. The ministry also reported 190 new recoveries over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of people free from the deadly virus to 352,815, with the recovery rate rising to 97.48 percent. The Riyadh region reported the highest number of infections with 44 cases, followed by the Makkah and the Madinah regions with 31 each and the Eastern region with 29 cases. The Jazan and Najran regions reported just 1 infection each. The remaining cases were detected in different other regions of the Kingdom. With the steady fall in new infections, the active cases in the Kingdom also dropped to 2,920 out of which 376 were critical cases.