Sixty-one COVID-19 deaths and 1,596 virus cases were recorded in the Kingdom on Saturday, increasing the caseload to 683,466, the government announced.

The new fatalities took the Kingdom’s coronavirus death toll to 8,178 according to a joint statement issued by the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Health.

The share of tests returning a positive result, known as positive rate, stood at nearly 14.02 per cent, compared with 12.41 per cent reported on Friday.

A total of 11,385 virus tests were also conducted on Saturday, bringing the cumulative number of coronavirus tests administered since the outbreak of the pandemic to 6,459,718, according to the statement.

The statement added that 6,032 recoveries were registered in hospitals and home quarantine on Saturday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 631,944.

The statement added that there are currently 43,344 active COVID-19 cases in Jordan.

A total of 222 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospitals on Saturday, taking the number of patients currently receiving care for COVID-19 in hospitals to 2,274, the statement said, adding that 140 recovered patients left hospitals.

On hospital capacities, the statement revealed that in the northern region the occupancy rate of isolation beds occupied by COVID-19 patients reached 38 per cent, ICU beds reached 63 per cent, while occupancy rate of ventilators stood at 36 per cent.

In the central region, isolation bed occupancy rate reached 42 per cent, 61 per cent for ICUs and 35 per cent for ventilators.

The statement added that the southern region registered an isolation beds occupancy rate of 25 per cent, 32 per cent for ICUs and 25 per cent for ventilators.

The cases comprised 510 in Irbid, including 125 in Ramtha District, 506 infections in Amman, 122 in Mafraq, 102 in Zarqa, 70 in Balqa, 62 in Karak, 62 in Tafileh, 49 in Aqaba, 47 in Ajloun, 41 in Madaba, 24 in Maan, including one in Petra District, and one case in Jerash.