Saeed Al-Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH – The Health Ministry on Monday announced that a Saudi man died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), bringing the Kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like infection to 34. The ministry said on its website that new cases had also been recorded, especially in the Eastern Province where most of the infections have occurred. The ministry said it had now recorded 66 cases of infection from the coronavirus in the Kingdom since the disease erupted last year. It said 34 of those who contracted the disease had died. WHO said on June 17 that 64 laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease had surfaced worldwide to date, including 38 deaths. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) praised the measures, professionalism, and transparency of the Kingdom in handling the MERS-CoV infection cases since the identification of the first case in the middle of last year. This came in a letter of appreciation from Dr. Alaa Olwan, regional director of WHO in Eastern Middle East region to Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah Rabeah. He said that the measures included intensifying surveillance of people who were in contact with infected individuals, contacting health experts from WHO and other global health agencies as well as local experts to share information and expertise in handling the infection cases. He added that among these measure were updating WHO and the public on the latest developments on the disease, conducting awareness campaign among healthcare personnel, holding regular press conferences to brief the community on the virus and the disease, assigning toll free numbers 937 and 8002494444 to provide people with awareness information.
