RIYADH: The number of new coronavirus infections in Saudi Arabia continued to decrease on Sunday with the health ministry recording 1,357 cases, the lowest total in three months.

The last similar figure was on April 29, when there were 1,351 new cases.

The Kingdom has now recorded 278,835 cases since the pandemic began, and the death toll rose by 30 on Sunday to 2,917.

Of the new cases, 153 were recorded in Makkah, 94 in the capital Riyadh, 72 in Jeddah and 64 in Hofuf.

The total number of recoveries in the Kingdom increased to 240,081 after 2,533 more patients recovered from the virus. 

There have been no reports of coronavirus infections at the holy sites of Hajj on the fifth day of the pilgrimage.

In Lebanon, a leading doctor warned that the health system was “beyond its capacity” as the number of coronavirus cases reached 5,000 despite a five-day lockdown from last Thursday.

“Intensive care rooms at Rafik Hariri University Hospital are now full and, if the situation remains the same during the coming days, the hospital will not be able to accommodate the cases requiring intensive care,” Dr. Osman Itani, a pulmonologist and intensive care specialist, told Arab News.

“The number of cases currently exceeds 100 per day, and this is a big problem that cannot be addressed by the health system as it is beyond its capacity. There is a need to restructure hospitals, bearing in mind that hospitals are currently not receiving positive cases, but rather patients just showing symptoms.”

Authorities in Iran, the worst affected country in the Middle East, reported the highest single-day infection count in nearly a month, and warned that most of its provinces had been hit by a resurgence of the disease.

There were 2,685 new cases on Sunday, taking the total to 309,437, and the death toll rose by 208 to 17,190.

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