JEDDAH: German Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jorg Ranau hailed the Kingdom’s efforts in fighting the coronavirus while receiving his vaccination at the Ministry of Health’s center in Riyadh recently. “I’m very glad to live in Saudi Arabia right now where incidences of infected people with COVID-19 are much lower than other parts of the world,” he told Al-Arabiya. “Congratulations to Saudi Arabia, to the ministry, to its government, which puts people first, and this is the right way to do it,” he said. He praised the Kingdom’s efforts in kick-starting the vaccination process. He noted that the mask he was wearing had “become the new normal,” adding that this was about to change due to vaccine development. The envoy said that the same Pfizer vaccine was also to be used in Germany. “I’m also a little proud, because the vaccine being used is the the BioNTech Pfizer one, developed in Germany,” he said. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s chief of general staff, Lt. Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, received his vaccination from the center in Riyadh as part of the national plan implemented by the Health Ministry. Saudi Arabia on Friday reported seven new COVID-19-related deaths. The death toll now stands at 6,230. There were 137 new cases reported in the Kingdom, meaning 362,878 people have now contracted the disease. There are 2,567 active cases, 362 of whom are in critical condition. According to the ministry, 30 of the newly recorded cases were in Riyadh, 15 in Makkah and eight in Madinah. In addition, 228 more patients have recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 354,081. Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 11,046,767 PCR tests, with 36,383 carried out in the past 24 hours.