The six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have recorded more than 1 million cases of infection with COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally of data published by each government. The tally in the energy producing region of more than 50 million people stood on Monday at 1,001,182 infections, with 9,162 deaths. Gulf economic powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which has the highest regional count at more than 355,000 infections and 5,780 deaths, has seen a downward trend in daily case numbers since early July when it was registering around 4,000 cases a day for a few weeks. Saudi partially lifted its suspension of international flights mid-September and has said it will lift all restrictions on citizens' foreign travel on Jan. 1. The country of around 34 million people recorded 224 new cases on Sunday. Cases in the United Arab Emirates, with the second highest infection count, rose steadily since early August to a high of 1,578 new daily cases in late October. New daily cases in the country of 9.8 million have since dropped back to around 1,200. Kuwait's daily case numbers have fluctuated between 900 and 400 a day since early May, and cases in Qatar have seen a steady fluctuation between 200 and 300 new cases a day since early August. Oman saw a surge in new cases around early October, but daily reported numbers have fallen since. Cases in Bahrain, which has the GCC's smallest population of around 1.5 million, have been falling since mid-September.
