MERS: For queries, ring 800 249 4444

The Ministry of Health has opened a phone-in service to provide information to residents and citizens about the coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which has affected 10 people in the past week and caused one death, according to the General Directorate of Health Affairs.
A ministry official said that callers can ask questions related to the prevention, treatment and spread of the disease in the Kingdom and abroad on toll free number 800 249 4444 during working hours.
"The virus does not pass from one human to another unless the person comes in contact with someone suffering from an acute case of pneumonia," said Abdullah Al-Asiri, ministry undersecretary for Preventive Health, on the first day of the phone-in service. "We had observed an increase in viral diseases during the same spring period last year."
Al-Asiri, who is also member of the National Scientific Committee for Infectious Diseases, said that changing weather could also trigger the disease among people suffering from chronic ailments in the Kingdom.
"There have been no reported incident of coronavirus among Haj or Umrah pilgrims or among spectators at football matches," he said.
"King Abdulaziz Hospital in Jeddah, which received many emergency patients, is back to normal," he said. “Patients were diverted to different hospitals in order to avoid a concentration of patients at any single hospital.” The ministry is currently trying to establish a pattern on the spread of the disease throughout the Kingdom, in addition to carrying out studies on various animals, he said.