8 new MERS deaths take Saudi toll to 102—health ministry

In this April 16, 2014, file photo, passengers walk past a thermal scanner at the medical quarantine area at the arrival section of Manila’s International Airport. The Saudi health ministry announced eight new deaths from the MERS virus on Sunday, April 28, taking the kingdom’s death toll from the disease to 102. AP/AARON FAVILA

JEDDAH—The Saudi health ministry announced eight new deaths from the MERS virus on Sunday taking the kingdom’s death toll from the disease to 102.

A full 39 of the deaths have been this month, sparking growing public concern about the virus that first emerged in April 2012.

Among the latest deaths was a nine-month-old infant, the ministry said.

The number of recorded infections in the kingdom has risen to 339, it added.

Among them were four medical staff at a single hospital in Tabuk in the northwest, two doctors—one Egyptian and one Syrian—and two Philippine nurses.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in the western city of Jeddah led to the temporary closure of a main hospital’s emergency room.

At least four doctors at Jeddah’s King Fahd Hospital resigned earlier this month after refusing to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.