RIYADH: The Kingdom’s Health Ministry on Tuesday said that no case of coronavirus had been detected in the country and that strict precautionary measures were in place to prevent its spread, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The ministry’s Command and Control Center (CCC) was following developments about the outbreak in China and was coordinating with authorities to address and deal with the global issue.
The CCC deals with public health emergencies in the Kingdom and works under the ministry’s supervision. It functions in cooperation with local and international specialists, and maintains partnerships with global organizations to ensure readiness and speed when facing public health threats.
It assesses and addresses risks before and as they happen by taking preventative measures, improving health infrastructure, training personnel, collecting the necessary resources, preparing work plans to be applied in case health threats occur, in addition to simulation training on action plans to face risks.
The center also performs epidemiological monitoring and monitors possible threats. It is the first to respond to public health threats, develop a specific action plan to address them, and monitor all responses to that threat.
Since the discovery of the virus in China, the CCC has taken several precautionary measures, implemented international health regulations for such cases, and fully coordinated with authorities to deal with the outbreak and address it.
It has closely monitored the epidemiological situation by cooperating with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other available sources, coordinating with the Kingdom's General Authority of Civil Aviation to assess direct and indirect flights from and to China in order to provide information to people who may be traveling to areas where infections have been recorded, monitoring people arriving from these areas, examining them and following up with them to ensure their safety.
On Tuesday Reuters news agency reported that the coronavirus death toll in China had exceeded 1,000. There are now over 42,000 confirmed cases of the virus in China as well as 319 cases in 24 other countries, including one death, according to the WHO and Chinese health officials.
