The emergence of SARS-CoV-2, a virus that causes COVID-19, has infected over 430 million people worldwide (743,205 in Saudi Arabia) and resulted in over 6 million deaths (8993 in Saudi Arabia) as of February 25, 2022. Despite implementing stringent control measures and travel restrictions, COVID-19 continues to circulate globally, and more recently, the resurgence of COVID-19 cases has been observed after the relaxation of lockdown and social distancing procedures as well as the emergence of variants that posed an increased risk to global public health (Tillett et al., 2021).
