Fifteen people in Saudi Arabia have died from a SARS-like virus out of 24 people who contracted it since last August, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia said on Sunday. "The number of people who contracted the virus in the kingdom since August/September is 24, of whom 15 have died," Rabia told a news conference in Riyadh.
An earlier toll provided on Tuesday by the World Health Organisation said 11 people had died in Saudi Arabia since last year from the disease whose medical term is NCoV-EMC, or novel coronavirus.
Rabia also said three other people are suspected of having contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia, pledging to announce with "full transparency" the results of their medical tests.
The WHO's assistant director general for health security and the environment, Keiji Fukuda, told a Riyadh news conference on Sunday the new virus posed an "important and major challenge" for countries affected and the world generally.
He said experts were still grappling to understand all aspects of the virus and how humans become infected, stressing, however, that "this new virus is not the SARS virus."
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