{"title":"COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: an epidemiological analysis of 2020-2021.","authors":"Mohannad Garoub","doi":"10.3855/jidc.18931","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic proved challenging for the healthcare systems. This study is an analysis of the epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the impact of the control measures on the epidemiological trends of the disease.</p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>A retrospective study was conducted on COVID-19 cases confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in KSA from March 2020 to December 2021. The numbers of confirmed, recovered, and death cases was analyzed and classified by age, gender, and nationality. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis for the disease trends and some of the control measures were conducted. All statistical analysis was carried out using the IBM SPSS version 26.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There were 549,810 confirmed cases from March 2, 2020, to December 1, 2021. The highest number of cases was during the summer months. Men accounted for 70% of all reported cases. 65% of incidents involved people aged 20-50 years. Saudi nationals represented 63% of the total cases. There was a decline in both confirmed and fatality cases in 2021 compared to 2020 (OR = 2.1, p < 0.001; and OR = 2.53, p < 0.001 respectively). Furthermore, the precautionary measures implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19 had a positive effect in reducing disease incidences (correlation 0.75, p < 0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The Saudi government has had exceptional success in controlling COVID-19 by expanding screening tests, launching immunization campaigns, and training physicians.</p>","PeriodicalId":49160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Infection in Developing Countries","volume":"18 9.1","pages":"S1-S8"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Infection in Developing Countries","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3855/jidc.18931","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic proved challenging for the healthcare systems. This study is an analysis of the epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the impact of the control measures on the epidemiological trends of the disease.
Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted on COVID-19 cases confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in KSA from March 2020 to December 2021. The numbers of confirmed, recovered, and death cases was analyzed and classified by age, gender, and nationality. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis for the disease trends and some of the control measures were conducted. All statistical analysis was carried out using the IBM SPSS version 26.
Results: There were 549,810 confirmed cases from March 2, 2020, to December 1, 2021. The highest number of cases was during the summer months. Men accounted for 70% of all reported cases. 65% of incidents involved people aged 20-50 years. Saudi nationals represented 63% of the total cases. There was a decline in both confirmed and fatality cases in 2021 compared to 2020 (OR = 2.1, p < 0.001; and OR = 2.53, p < 0.001 respectively). Furthermore, the precautionary measures implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19 had a positive effect in reducing disease incidences (correlation 0.75, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: The Saudi government has had exceptional success in controlling COVID-19 by expanding screening tests, launching immunization campaigns, and training physicians.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries (JIDC) is an international journal, intended for the publication of scientific articles from Developing Countries by scientists from Developing Countries.
JIDC is an independent, on-line publication with an international editorial board. JIDC is open access with no cost to view or download articles and reasonable cost for publication of research artcles, making JIDC easily availiable to scientists from resource restricted regions.