Coronavirus Snuffs Out 3 More Lives in KSA
The Kingdom has reported 3 more deaths from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths globally to 30.
The Ministry of Health said yesterday the three deceased, aged 24 to 60, had chronic diseases, including kidney failure. They were hospitalized a month ago.
The ministry also announced a new case of the respiratory virus called MERS-nCoV, bringing to 38 the number of those infected in the Kingdom.
It identified the afflicted person only as a 61-year-old from Al-Ahsa where the outbreak in a health care facility started in April.
MERS-CoV stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the National Health Lab (NHL), which the Ministry of Health built on 100,000 square meters at a cost of SR 320 million, has not been commissioned yet even though it had been completed much earlier, sources have told Al-Eqtisadiah.
The sources said the Egyptian specialist who discovered the first cases of the coronavirus sent samples from the patients outside Saudi Arabia. The sources wondered why the NHL has not yet been commissioned even though it had been proposed 4 years ago.
The sources also expressed surprise as to why the samples were sent from Riyadh, which houses a regional lab, to Jeddah and not vice versa. A contract to build the lab was signed with a Saudi company when Hamad Al Mani was health minister in 2006.
It was supposed to be a leading lab in the Middle East in line with world-class labs.
Arab News
