Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Sixteen of the 24 people "who contracted the virus in the kingdom since August/September" have died from a new coronavirus strain, Saudi Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia said on Sunday. Three other people are suspected of having contracted the virus, and tests results will be announced with "full transparency," he added.
In the past year, more cases have been reported in Jordan, Qatar, Britain, Germany and France with patients experiencing serious respiratory problems. In France, the Health Ministry yesterday stated that the hospital roommate of a 65-year-old man who initially contracted the virus has also tested positive.
Although the World Health Organisation has said that it appears likely that the novel coronavirus (NCoV) can be passed between people in close contact, it has refrained from calling for restrictions on international travel.
However, cases reported in Jordan and Great Britain have raised fear that this form of coronavirus might be transmitted from human to human without going through an animal carrier. Some patients in fact had no direct contact with animals in the period prior to infection.
Studies show that this variant is a cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and eventually killing some 800 people.
Although there have been only 30 cases since late summer last year, the death rate has topped 50 per cent and has become worse over the past few months, raising concern among international organisations and the authorities in the affected countries.