Cairo: Saudi health authorities have called for wearing face masks in crowded places to avoid respiratory infections, after a new variant of COVID-19 was recently reported in the country.
“It’s important to wear a mask when going to crowded places to safeguard yourself and others from respiratory infections,” the Public Health Authority (PHA) said in an X post.
Earlier this month, PHA announced the availability of updated vaccine against COVID-19 and recommended vulnerable groups to obtain it.
These categories are specified as the pregnancy women; people aged 50 years or above; health practitioners directly dealing with patients; sufferers of chronic immunosuppressive diseases including active cancer; and those at risk of infection due to excessive obesity.
The updated vaccine against COVID-19 is taken to prevent complications of the disease and it is effective against prevalent variants, according to PHA that said the vaccine is allowed for people over 18 and can be taken regardless of the number of previous doses.
Last month, Saudi health authorities said they had locally detected the JN.1 variant of COVID-19, but said it was no cause for worry.
PHA said at the time it had monitored the local spread of the variant, JN.1, accounting for 36 per cent of the cases in the country.
“This has not been accompanied by any increase in admissions into intensive care units,” the government agency, known as Weqya, said.
Saudi Arabia has gradually lifted pandemic-related restrictions, reopening different businesses and activities in the country.
Last year, around 1.8 million Muslims attended annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia for the first time in three years after the pandemic-induced restrictions were lifted.
