Kenyan living in Saudi Arabia succumbs to Covid-19
A Kenyan living in Saudi Arabia has died of Covid-19, bringing the number to nine the number of Kenyans who have died abroad of the disease.
Two of them have died in the UK and six in the US.
Kenyan ambassador to Saudi Arabia Peter Ogego revealed the death while informing Kenyans residing in the Kingdom to abide by the measures put in place by authorities to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
He said the victim had an underlying medical condition prior to the pandemic.
“Ambassador Ogego has informed us this afternoon we lost one Kenyan, with an underlying medical condition to Covid-19. Notably, this is the first such case for Kenyans in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Mohamed Weliye, a Kenyan and an Advisor to Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) tweeted.
In his message, the Ambassador said the Embassy would temporarily suspend its normal operations and consular services until further notice.
DEATHS
He said this was in line with the country’s elaborate efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and to reduce any risk of infection to staff and clients.
During the period, members of staff of the embassy are working virtually and are on duty on call.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced nine deaths and 1,197 new cases of the Covid-19 virus.
Of these cases, 120 were recorded in Madinah, 364 in Makkah, 271 in Jeddah, 170 in Riyadh and 43 in Dammam.
The number of people who had recovered from the coronavirus in the Kingdom increased to 2,214 after 165 patients were reported to have recovered.
A total of 136 people have died of the disease in the Kingdom so far.