Okaz/Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — As many as 33 international and Saudi consultants and specialists in infectious diseases will be working in the Kingdom in a bid to contain the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to Dr. Abdulaziz Abdullah Bin Saeed, undersecretary of the Health Ministry who is also the chairman of the disease command and control center.

 

He said six experts from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have already arrived in the Kingdom and three others will be coming next week to join the 24 consultants and specialists from the program of epidemic diseases, a joint venture between the ministry, the CDC and King Saud University.

 

“The experts will run investigations and conduct research concerning the coronavirus,” he said.

 

Saeed said so far there is no vaccination against coronavirus but studies are conducted toward this end.

 

He asked citizens and expatriates to take the necessary precautionary measures to avoid contracting the infection.

 

Saeed revealed that three coronavirus cases who were not suffering from pneumonia were allowed to be quarantined at their homes because they did not constitute any threat.

 

“These cases are under constant observation. Teams from the ministry visit them daily and take their blood samples to make sure that they have recovered.”

 

The ministry announced that 19 confirmed coronavirus cases, including three health practitioners, were registered in various parts of the Kingdom on Mar. 1-7.

 

The ministry said the cases were aged 30-74 and that 16 of them were in Riyadh, two in Qassim and one in Jeddah.

 

According to the ministry, 11 were men and the rest women.

 

Eleven were Saudis, two Filipinos, two Bangladeshis and one each from India, Sudan and Pakistan.

 

The ministry also said within 24 hours a 30-year-old expatriate man died from coronavirus in Unaizah and an 82-year-old Saudi man died in a government hospital in Riyadh.

 

It said two men have recovered and were discharged from the hospital.

They were a 41-year-old Saudi man who was at a government hospital in Jubail and a 31-year-old expatriate in a government hospital in Al-Khobar.