TASS, April 28. Saudi Arabian doctors has identified 1,266 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the national health ministry said via Twitter on Tuesday, adding that the total number of infections, therefore, has increased to 20,077.

The national data shows that eight people died in a single day, while 253 patients recovered. Overall, 152 coronavirus-related fatalities were recorded, the number of recoveries stands at 2,784. Saudi Arabia remains the most affected Arab nation with the biggest number of infections.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 3,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 211,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 923,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.