RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health recorded 197 new cases over the past 24 hours, marking it the first day of under 200 infections after four days of the figures crossing 200. For more than a month, the single-day number consistently remained below the 200-mark and it dropped to the lowest for the first in many months on Jan. 3 this year when only 82 new COVID-19 infections were reported. According to the Ministry of Health, 4 more patients died over the past 24 hours due to complications caused by the virus. This brings the total number of confirmed infections in the Kingdom to 366,185 and virus-related fatalities to 6,350. The ministry also reported 203 new recoveries over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of people free from the deadly virus to 357,728. The Riyadh region reported the highest number of infections with 78 cases, followed by the Eastern region with 43 and the Makkah region with 36 cases. The other cases were recorded in the various parts of the Kingdom. With the slight increase in new COVID-19 cases over the past few days, the active cases in Saudi Arabia also rose to 2,107, out of which 329 were critical.
