MANILA — The Philippines confirmed a second case of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus on Monday in a man who showed symptoms after arriving in Manila last month from Dubai. The 36-year-old was admitted to hospital on Saturday and was under observation, Health Ministry spokesman Lyndon Lee-suy said, adding contact tracing was now under way to prevent the spread of the disease. The man had also traveled to Saudi Arabia, the spokesman said. His condition was improving and there was no known transmission so far. The first case discovered in the Philippines was in January, a Filipino nurse working in Saudi Arabia who survived. The Saudi Ministry of Health has confirmed six new cases coronavirus infections in the Kingdom last week, the Saudi Press Agency reported Sunday. In its weekly bulletin on MERS, the ministry said six new cases were confirmed in Riyadh, Dammam and Turbah, out of 644 samples tested in laboratories all over the Kingdom. The ministry's rapid response team for combating infections in healthcare facilities carried out four visits during the week while public health teams paid six visits to people who had mingled with confirmed cases. The Ministry of Agriculture carried out two visits. The Health Ministry bulletin said 578 patients from a total of 1,045 confirmed coronavirus cases have recovered while seven people are still under treatment. MERS was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and the majority of cases have been in the Middle East. Scientists are not sure of the origin of the virus, but several studies have linked it to camels. Isolated cases cropped up in Asia before an outbreak erupted in South Korea in May and became the largest outside of Saudi Arabia. — Agencies
