Riyadh, Feb. 20, 2022, SPA –- Assistant Minister of Health and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health Dr. Mohammed Al-Abdulaali said that the world is still facing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, where countries' interaction with this phase is variant, depending on the way each country is dealing with the pandemic and the serious steps implemented in increasing the level of community immunity through vaccines and preventive measures. He noted that these steps are carried out with precautions, follow-ups and monitoring to complete the remaining stages to get rid of the pandemic, stressing that such procedures contribute to the success of countries in dealing with the pandemic and protecting their societies. Dr. Al-Abdulaali noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keeping pace with this positive development in facing the pandemic, stressing that it is a global model citing that the cases curve in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is heading downwards with excellence. It keeps pace with the epidemiological curves accorded with the nature and pattern of the Omicron variant, he said, adding that despite the number of global and local infections, the levels of health protection and security have contributed to limit the severity of the disease including the number of cases that need admissions to ICUs or big numbers of deaths, especially that these numbers were relatively limited during this wave, a result of the clear impact of vaccines. He pointed out that the curve of critical cases, which witnessed a clear and successive decrease over the past few days, is a promising indicator for a further decrease. He noted that the high numbers of critical cases are for those who were not vaccinated or did not complete their immunization. Dr. Al-Abdulaali also expressed his appreciation for all members of the society, citizens and residents, for their commitment and turnout to receive the vaccines, especially those who took the booster shot, followed up the main and credible platforms, refrained from listening to rumors and lies and referred to official institutions in implementation of the directives of the wise leadership. He stressed that the number of administered jabs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exceeded 60 million shots, the number of people who received two shots reached 24 million and those who got the booster shot reached more than ten million, a reference to the impact of vaccines in protecting the society and reducing the number of critical cases. --SPA 21:25 LOCAL TIME 18:25 GMT 0020 www.spa.gov.sa/w1694136