Saudi Arabia has registered its highest daily number of new Covid-19 infections so far, health ministry data showed, breaking through 5,000 cases on Thursday.
Cases in the kingdom, which has the Gulf’s largest population at around 35 million, have risen dramatically since the start of the year with the global spread of the Omicron variant.
The kingdom on Wednesday reported 5,362 new cases and two deaths, rising above the previous peak of daily infections in June 2020 of 4,919.
Mask wearing in public in Saudi Arabia has been compulsory since the start of the year.
Other Gulf Arab states have also seen infections surge in the past month, with Kuwait and Qatar also breaking through previous daily case records.
Germany reported 80,430 new coronavirus in-fections on Thursday, the highest recorded in a sin-gle day since the pandemic began, as the contagious Omicron variant rips through a population with lower vaccination rates than some other parts of Europe.
The previous daily record, on Nov. 26, was more than 76,000. Germany’s tally of infections now stands at 7,661,811. The death toll also rose by 384 on Wednesday to reach 114,735.
Just under 75% of the population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious disease show.
The seven-day incidence rate, a key yardstick in deciding coronavirus policy, has ticked up steadily since the start of the year, to stand at 407.5 cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday, versus 387.9 the day before.—Reuters
