Pakistani doctor awarded medal in Saudi Arabia over COVID-19 services

Saudi Arabia-based Pakistani doctor, Zia Ullah Khan Dawar, was awarded a medal by the Kingdom's health ministry in recognition of his services as one of the "captains” of the COVID-19 team, Arab News reported on Monday.

According to the publication, the health worker has been residing in the Kingdom for the last four years and has worked on several health programmes including tuberculosis, dengue fever, and malaria.

"He is currently working with the kingdom’s health ministry in Jeddah as part of a COVID-19 surveillance and data analysis team," the publication said.

Dawar told Arab News that the country's health ministry gave awards to medical workers in recognition of 100 days of their services in fighting against the virus and that he was one of the foreign doctors to receive the award.

“I am feeling so proud to get the recognition of my services. I came from North Waziristan, so it is not only an honour for me but for my area and for Pakistan," he said.

“We were working in a mobile team which is a challenging and risky job,” Dawar said, adding: "Whenever any positive case was reported, we immediately had to go to the site and do the needful.”