Saudi Arabia Sees MERS Red Alert In Qassim; 3 Dead

By

By Mohammed Rasooldeen

The Ministry of Health has warned people in Qassim to be careful of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, which struck five people in Buraidah and one each in Najran, Jeddah and Riyadh during the past four days.

Since Thursday, there have been eight cases, including three deaths, two in Buraidah and one in Najran.

A 67-year-old Saudi woman and a 60-year-old Saudi man from Buraidah died, while another 60-year-old man also died in Najran.

Since June 2012, the Kingdom has reported 1,318 MERS cases which included 745 recoveries, 559 deaths and 14 under treatment cases.

Pursuant to the sudden rise in MERS cases, the ministry has set up a central command and control center in Buraidah to monitor the movement of the disease and to take the necessary preventive measures.

He said this center would coordinate among hospitals in the transfer of patients to facilities convenient to them. The ministry has adopted high levels of preventive measures to fight against the virus.

The ministry has pledged its utmost commitment to combat the virus in all parts of the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, at a workshop held in Riyadh, Nasser Al-Dossari, acting director general of health affairs in Riyadh, said that people should be vigilant of the MERS virus and symptoms should be immediately reported to a doctor for necessary action.

Arab News

Arab News is Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1975 by Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz. Today, it is one of 29 publications produced by Saudi Research & Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *