Foreigner dies of MERS in Saudi Arabia, 8 infected — ministry

A foreigner has died from MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) while eight people including five health workers have been infected in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where the spread of the coronavirus among medics has sparked panic, Agence France-Presse reported.

The death of the 45-year-old man, whose nationality has not been disclosed, brings the nationwide toll in the world’s most-affected country to 68.

The health ministry late Saturday announced the death of the man and said five health workers — two women and three men — and three other people had been infected by the virus in Jeddah.

The announcement came days after panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff led to the closure of the emergency room at the city’s main public hospital.

Health Minister Abdullah Al Rabiah visited hospitals in Jeddah on Saturday in a bid to calm residents.

The virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region but has now spread across more areas.

Meanwhile, Yemen reported its first case of the deadly MERS coronavirus on Sunday in a further spread of the deadly strain in the Middle East two years after its outbreak in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported.

“Medical personnel have recorded one case of the coronavirus in Sanaa and the victim is a Yemeni man who works as an aeronautics engineer,” the semi-official Al Thawra newspaper quoted Public Health Minister Ahmed Al Ansi as saying.

“The ministry is working in effective cooperation with the World Health Organisation to confront this virus, and is in direct and constant communication with all hospitals to receive information on any other suspected cases,” Ansi said.

The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, 9 per cent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

A study has said the virus has been “extraordinarily common” in camels for at least 20 years and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans, according to AFP.