Riyadh : Saudi health Ministry has informed that five persons have died due to a SARS like virus in the past few days and two have been admitted to Intensive Care Unit.
A communique released by the Health Ministry stated that the Virus was found in the Ahsaa province of Saudi and the five persons who died belong to the same area.
Known as novel coronavirus or hCoV-EMC, the virus was first detected in mid-2012 and is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts.
The health ministry said it was taking “all precautionary measures for persons who have been in contact with the infected people … and has taken samples from them to examine if they are infected”.