COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronav virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) The first case in the kingdom was confirmed by the Ministry of Health on 2 March 2020. As of September 7, 2020, there had been a little over 320,000 confirmed cases with more than 4,000 deaths attributed to the virus in Saudi Arabia. The economy of Saudi Arabia also suffered a heavy impact; a budget deficit of 9 billion US dollars was reported in the first quarter of 2020 caused by the decline in oil prices and the economic effects of the pandemic. Several measures were taken to help stimulate the economy, including increasing the value-added tax from 5% to 15%, effective 1 July, and cutting spending by 100 billion riyals (US$26,600,000,000). Between 3 January 2020 and 14 April 2022, there were 752,188 confirmed cases of CO VID-19 in Saudi Saudi Arabia with 9,062 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.