Dr. Hassan M. Khormi*

Vol. (14), No. (1), 1440 / 2020

p.p. 95 – 106

Abstract:

The COVID-19 is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of the most important and impactful globally. Visual displays of quantitative data of this disease, such as cases of infections, on maps for understanding causes have a successful story in Saudi Arabia. This study mainly aims to explain how the Saudi authorities implement GIS concepts in controlling the spatial risks of COVID-19. It also shows the current spatial distribution of the disease in Saudi Arabia, with most infected groups according to their nationality sex and age, collected from the Health Ministry database. Getis-Ord Gi٭ statistic was applied to examine the national level of spatial cluster (risk level) to identify and visualize regions where values of COVID-19 rate were extreme and geographically homogenous. The results show the impact of COVID-19 is still limited, as the total number of infections did not exceed 74,795 confirmed cases until 25th May 2020, of which 45,668 (61% out of the total cases) have recovered. Ar Riyad (17,656 cases), which includes the capital city of SA, Makkah (29,436), Almadinah (9,751), and Ash Sharqiyah (14,012) are the most impacted regions (high-risk level) as they recorded most of the cases with 70,855 (95%) out of the all confirmed cases. This study shows how GIS applications help monitor the impact of the outbreak, manage it, communicate with the security and health services, and help allocate resources, which will help society and institutions to respond effectively.

Keywords: COVID-19, Saudi Arabia, GIS, Spatial Risks, WHO.

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* Associate Professor,  Department of Social Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia