Manama: Mahmood Rafique, Editor: The Ministry of Health has confirmed 713 new COVID-19 cases and reporting three more deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours taking the total death tally to 224 as of Monday.
The spike in contacts of active cases remains unabated for the past many days with 563 such cases on Monday out of the total 713 new cases reported by the authorities.
Out of 11438 COVID-19 tests carried out on 21 September 2020, 713 new cases have been detected among 146 expatriate workers, 563 new cases are contacts of active cases, and 4 are travel related. There were 676 recoveries from the COVID-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 58626, the Ministry of Health has confirmed on its website and social media channels.
As the Kingdom has increased the tests across the communities in a drive of a nation-wide testing campaign to bend the curve of the infections through mitigation, the total tests reaching 1344713 by Monday with 11438 tests in a single day.
The number of active cases receiving treatment reached 148 and 52 patients were in critical condition.
The National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in its briefing highlighted that the number of active COVID-19 cases has increased over the past two weeks, surpassing 750 cases on some of the previous days, due to non-compliance of health and precautionary guidelines during the Ashura holidays.
The Taskforce underscored the importance of social responsibility to safeguard individuals, families and the community, by vigilantly adhering to all health guidelines aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus, reducing infection rates and flattening the curve. The Taskforce noted that the virus does not discriminate between race, religion, or faith and therefore unified efforts are required to ensure a commitment to following all precautionary measures aimed at preserving the health of the community.
The Taskforce stressed the importance of safeguarding the community as a national duty, as reflected in the national efforts of frontline workers who tirelessly work around the clock to support monitoring and mitigation efforts. The Taskforce noted that following all precautionary guidelines and social distancing measures are important to mitigating the spread of the virus, and have been introduced based on scientific facts, and international statistics and data on the virus.
The Taskforce added that official statistics have revealed a spike in active COVID-19 cases due to an increase in social and religious gatherings during the Ashura holidays, as a result of non-compliance to precautionary health measures that have been put in place in partnership with the Jaffaria Waqf Directorate and the heads of the Ma’atams in Bahrain.
