Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabee'a, Minister of Health, stressed that the rates of Coronavirus "MERS" is still reassuring and the number of confirmed cases in Jeddah is not an exception of that in other regions of the Kingdom. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr. Al-Rabee'a said that the ministry has noticed a limited increase in the number of cases of Coronavirus "MERS" in the past few weeks where eleven cases were discovered in Jeddah Province, "the number of cases generally is still low and does not represent an epidemic according to World Health Organization (WHO) and scientific committees standards," the minister said. He called on all citizens and expatriates not to be deceived by rumors or wrong information circulating in the social media outlets, asking the media to take the information from official sources. He vowed that the Ministry would provide the public with every important information in this regard and referred everybody to the ministry's website which, he said, is following and publishing every detail around the clock. The minister urged all people in Saudi Arabia to follow instructions and guides issued by the ministry in this regard and take preventive and precautionary measures, including keeping away from suspected patients, putting on masks, cleaning of hands when coming in touch with respiratory infection contractors etc. He confirmed that his ministry is in continuous contact with the WHO and other national and international scientific commissions for any development, noting that the Saudi Scientific Committee on Contagious Diseases will hold on Thursday (tomorrow) a meeting to discuss the developments of the virus locally and internationally. He concluded that the corona virus is still an ambiguous disease worldwide as there is lack of confirmed information about ways of spreading or outbreak, its vaccine or special treatment.
