THE Ministry of Health has established a detailed website with sub-categories that provide information on the coronavirus in different languages. The website aims at guiding the public on how to take precocious measures and correct some misconceptions about coronavirus, and further it announces infected cases on regular basis. The Command and Control Center of the ministry, which also has a special website, aims at gathering information, provide advices, make diagnoses and issue reports, provide recommendations for control in peak seasons, help guard infections in healthcare facilities among other awareness and scanning processes. The center has enhanced its capability of dealing with and responding to the incidents by forming rapid response teams including 120 health specialists of different specialties, covering all regions of the Kingdom. Earlier, in September, 62 cases were under treatment, 14 cases on home isolation, 624 cases recovered. While the total death rate reached 520 since 2012. The Minister of Health Khaled Al-Falih announced recently that the spread of coronavirus is “restricted” and added that they are working on speed and in high proficiency to control the disease. He added that they implement transparency in announcing documented case. The Ministry of Agriculture demanded that owners of cattle shall register their animals in a new system. The camel registration system is done through inserting a cell in the neck of camels. The goal is to register all camels to help notice their number, document any diseases and develop ways to combat them. The campaign started in Qassim with 200,000 camels being registered. Haj Health Services: More than 5,695 male and female nurses are serving in this year's Haj season, including 3,895 Saudis. The Laboratories and Blood Banks Committee follows three basic paths, including providing the laboratories in Makkah and the Holy Sites with the laboratory equipment and detectors necessary for detecting diseases and epidemics, and preparing the laboratories for the ordinary tests for patients and visitors of the hospitals and the health centers in the Holy Sites and Makkah. The second track includes providing the hospitals in the Holy Sites with the blood and blood products. The third path is concerned with the poison control and forensic medicine chemistry. The “Yaqez” (Vigilant) Program adopted by the ministry to examine drivers in the program aims at making sure that vehicles drivers are not abusing any psychotropic substances to ensure pilgrims' safety.
MOH has prepared three laboratories including; the mobile laboratory of East Arafat Hospital, the regional laboratory in Makkah and the regional laboratory in Jeddah, within its comprehensive plan to control and combat Coronavirus provided that the virus examining period will not exceed six hours. Surgeries and Hospital Services: Out of 142,643 major routine surgeries, the Ministry of Health's (MOH) hospitals conducted 60,378 one-day surgeries during last year, at a rate of 42.33%, with the exception of emergency and minor operations. Najran region came first in terms of the number of one-day surgeries with 65.68%, followed by Bisha Province (61.57), Al-Ehsa Province (60.96%), Taif Province (60.07) and Jazan Province (48.27%). Activating Referral Program for Critical Cases: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has referred over 10,000 patients through the Referral (Ehalati) Program, including 2,325 life-saving cases during the first half of this year. ‘Ehalati' Program provides medical counseling among the physicians in the various medical facilities, to study the patient case without the need for transferring him. It also provides all the logistic and coordination requirements to refer the patient from one medical facility to another. In addition, it provides an archiving and statistical system, which contains information of the referred patients in the Kingdom's hospitals. Monitoring Private Sector Establishments: As part of the Ministry of Health's efforts to put the laws and regulations into effect, and to monitor the private health sector's commitment to enhancing the health services offered to patients, the ministry closed down 68 private health institutions; due to non-compliance with health regulations. It also recorded over 608 irregularities against some private health and pharmaceutical institutions in a number of the Kingdom's regions. Home Medicine: The ministry has provided home medicine services for more than 51,900 patients at all regions and provinces of the Kingdom, since the inception of the Home Medicine Program six years ago, it has paid approximately over one million visits at their homes.
