JEDDAH: A Saudi nurse who volunteered at one of Al-Ahsa’s quarantine centers transmitted COVID-19 to her family, leading to the death of her daughter from the disease. Radhiyya Al-Hamoud, the mother of the 13-year-old girl, said that in their last conversation she had asked her daughter Massoumah’s forgiveness. “I asked her to forgive me because I was the reason she contracted the disease. She said: ‘I forgive you, Mama’. Those were her last words to me,” she said. Al-Hamoud described her relationship with her daughter as “strong,” and said that Massoumah had a big, compassionate heart and used to hug her and massage her tired feet every day when she returned home from work. She said that she has lost her “soul and innocent angel. She was the family’s butterfly — light in her spirit, companionship, and kindness.” She added that the last moments of farewell were “painful and devastating.” When Massoumah was in pain, she would ask her mother to rest and sleep even though her pain was at its worst and her body and vital functions were affected by the virus. Al-Hamoud added that saying goodbye to loved ones is like extinguishing one’s soul. Habib Al-Biladi, Massoumah’s father, said that his daughter died for her country. When the house quarantine started in mid-March, his wife was one of the first to willingly volunteer at quarantine centers in Al-Ahsa. On May 12, she was infected with the COVID-19. The whole family, including Massoumah and his two sons Mahmoud and Mohammed, was tested. “We all tested positive, so we were quarantined at a hotel in Al-Ahsa and recovered by Eid Al-Fitr, which coincided with the full lockdown in all Saudi cities,” he said. His daughter’s temperature had spiked days later and was taken to several clinics, where she was given antipyretics, but her fever lasted for two days. “We also took her to the Children’s Hospital, and she became more stable, so we were about to take her home, but the hospital preferred to keep her to monitor her health. Things started to change quickly until she developed kidney failure, and then the vital functions in her body were stopped, so she was placed on ventilators,” her father said. Habib’s daughter took her last breath two days later on June 15. The nurse’s family supported her decision to volunteer at the quarantine center to serve her country, protect its people, and ensure their comfort, he said. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported that a citizen who has not been adhering to preventive measures and openly shook hands tested positive for COVID-19. He ended up infecting 16 members of his family, including his parents. His father, who suffered from a heart condition, died from the virus. The Kingdom recorded 46 new COVID-19-related deaths on Friday, raising the total to 1,474. There were 3,938 new cases reported, so that a total of 174,577 people have now contracted the disease. There are 52,632 active cases, 2,273 of them are in critical conditions. According to the Health Ministry, 346 of the newly recorded cases were in Dammam, while Al-Hafouf recorded 332 and Jeddah recorded 243. The health ministry also announced that 2,589 more patients had recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 120,471. Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 1,456,241 tests for COVID-19.