Health minister tests positive for COVID

AMMAN — Health Minister Firas Hawwari on Sunday announced that he contracted the COVID-19 virus. 

Hawwari told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that his health condition is stable and he is committed to home quarantine procedures and applying protocols related to infected people.

Secretary General for Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Health Ministry Raed Shboul said that the minister’s infection was detected by periodic PCR tests for the ministry’s staff, noting that he showed no symptoms.

He added that the minister will work remotely during the upcoming period.  

Meanwhile, eleven COVID-19 deaths and 6,951 virus cases were recorded in the Kingdom on Sunday, increasing the caseload since the start of the pandemic to 1,141,048, the government announced.

The new fatalities took the Kingdom’s coronavirus death toll to 13,073, according to a joint statement issued by the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Health.

The share of tests returning a positive result stood at 19.54 per cent.

A total of 35,576 virus tests were also conducted on Sunday, bringing the cumulative number of coronavirus tests administered since the start of the pandemic to 14,343,796, according to the statement.

The statement added that 3,396 recoveries were registered in hospitals and home quarantine on Sunday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,082,207.

The statement added that there are currently 45,768 active COVID-19 cases in Jordan.

A total of 129 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospitals on Sunday, taking the number of patients currently receiving care for COVID-19 in hospitals to 680, while 70 recovered patients left hospitals, the statement said.

Additionally, the statement revealed that in the northern region the occupancy rate of isolation beds occupied by COVID-19 patients reached 11 per cent, ICU beds reached 27 per cent, while the occupancy rate of ventilators stood at 11 per cent.

In the central region, isolation bed occupancy rate reached 18 per cent, 35 per cent for ICUs and 15 per cent for ventilators.

The statement added that the southern region registered an isolation bed occupancy rate of 6 per cent, 7 per cent for ICUs and 5 per cent for ventilators.

The cases comprised 3,284 infections in Amman, 937 in Irbid, 792 in Zarqa, 394 in Balqa, 277 in Jerash, 176 in Ajloun, 341 in Karak, 253 in Madaba, 193 in Mafraq, 128 in Aqaba, 80 in Maan, 58 in Ramtha District, 38 in Tafileh, while no cases were reported in Petra District.

The statement also added that the total number of people who received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine has reached 4,551,296 while 4,157,442 have received their second shot.

The number of people who have registered on the vaccination platform has reached 4,830,062.