Riyadh, April 6, 2022, SPA – The Ministry of Health published an infographic on its Twitter account, which showed the effective role of vaccines and precautions on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their positive role in reducing the rates of severe illness and death resulting from the pandemic. The infographic showed that the first wave of the pandemic spanning between April to the end of November 2020, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia registered 267 deaths for each 100,000 infections despite the precautions that were followed at the time, such as wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands and refraining from shaking hands. This changed during the second wave of the pandemic spanning between March and August 2021, which witnessed the same procedures in addition to administering the first jab of vaccines, which contributed to lowering the death rate to 99 cases for each 100,000 infections. The third wave of the pandemic extending between December 2021 and February 2022 witnessed a remarkable decline in the death rates with continuing to apply preventive measures and immunization with two shots and the booster jab, where the death rate stood at one case for 100,000 infections. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been among first countries – following directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense – to take preemptive procedures and effective decisions that played a clear role in reducing the impact of repercussions of the pandemic, which made the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to excel globally in dealing with the pandemic with high professionalism that was praised by the World Health Organization. --SPA 17:10 LOCAL TIME 14:10 GMT 0016 www.spa.gov.sa/w1717811