Death Tally From SARS-Like MERS CoV in Saudi Arabia Now at 38

The death tally from the fatal SARS-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the oil-rich nation Saudi Arabia has reached 38.

The latest fatalities were a two-year-old male child who died in Jeddah and a 53-year-old man who died in Eastern Province, the site of the outbreak in the kingdom.

The addition of the two deaths now bring the global number of fatalities as officially reported by the World Health Organisation at 44.

Saudi Arabia's health ministry likewise announced one additional laboratory-confirmed case among the previously confirmed cases of the MERS-CoV, a 56 year-old female from Hafr Al- Batin city, north-eastern region, a health care worker who had been in with contact with a previously reported laboratory confirmed MERS-CoV case. The latter had since recovered and has been discharged.

The latest laboratory-confirmed case brings the global total cases of MERS-CoV, which can cause fever, coughing and pneumonia, to 80 cases.

Still on Friday, despite the increasing numbers, the WHO maintained the MERS-CoV still has to reach pandemic proportions.

But it urged Saudi Arabia nationals as well as those who have travel plans to the oil-rich nation to exert precautionary measures, especially in view of the Ramadan which will start in Saudi Arabia on Monday night.

Usually held for a month, Ramadan is the time when hundreds of thousands of Muslims come to Makkah for Umrah. Millions are likewise expected to travel to Makkah for Haj, the main pilgrimage, in October.

But Saudi Arabia has slashed the number of visas for 2013 as well as urged pilgrims to defer their travel and religious observance plans, citing safety concerns over expansion work at the main mosque site, in a bid to control the potential spread of the fatal virus.