The spike in Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections in Saudi Arabia continues with the kingdom’s health ministry reporting seven additional cases yesterday, bringing the total cases for the year to 50.
The town of Wadi Aldwasir has been hit particularly hard reporting 30 cases in just the past two weeks.
Oman has reported five MERS cases in January, the first cases reported there in nearly a year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), all five laboratory confirmed cases are females from the same family and range in age from 30-59 years. The source of infection in this cluster is under investigation in Oman and four of the five cases appear to be secondary cases resulting from human-to-human transmission.
Including these five additional cases, a total of 16 laboratory confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection have been reported by Oman since 2013.
Globally, as of 8 February 2019, 2,311 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV including at least 811 related deaths have been reported to WHO.
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