‘Normal Life’But Saudi Arabia’s example shows how quickly a country’s control over the novel coronavirus can start to slip.
The nation of 34 million has reported one of the lowest death rates in the world, even as the virus hobbled health care systems in the U.S.
and Italy. According to data compiled by Bloomberg from Johns Hopkins University, Saudi Arabia’s mortality rate is around 0.7%, compared with 5.8% in the U.S.
and more than 14% in the U.K., although a lack of standardized reporting makes country-to-country comparisons difficult.Part of that may be due to the kingdom’s relatively young population, but Saudi Arabia also acted swiftly -- imposing restrictions in March, with the number of cases in the country still under 100.