Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Health Security Affairs, Dr. Keiji Fukuda has praised the level of the actions taken by the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represented in the Saudi reference hospitals and medical centers for the prevention of infection by Corona virus. He said: 'I noticed a significant improvement this year in addition to what has been done in the past at the level of addressing and dealing with the virus, especially in therapeutic, diagnostic and preventive services.' He added that there is also a significant improvement that has been observed in this visit in several axes: the first is the establishment of an advanced center for monitoring and following-up cases under the name of the command and control center with sub-centers in 20 regions across the Kingdom; there are preparations for Corona virus' diagnosis and analysis in the laboratories and strict preparations in infection control in hospitals as well as health awareness. Dr. Fukuda further said that the last axis in which we live today is the set of research and scientific studies to examine this virus and fill gaps in identifying the properties of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The WHO Assistant Director General stressed the importance of continuing this concrete work done by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, despite the significant improvement, is to integrate efforts to tackle the virus. He also confirmed that the bulk of infection by Corona virus is still occuring in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries, yet the World Health Organization classified, until now, Corona virus disease as an emergency event constitutes an international concern and there are many international organizations help to eliminate it. Dr. Fukuda said 'We're here today at the head of a mission of many international experts concerned, there are experts from WHO headquarters in Geneva and the Regional Office in Cairo and Riyadh as well as from the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in addition to experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and France's Pasteur Institute to fight Infectious diseases and vaccines.'
