The Ministry of Health will seek the assistance of international pharmaceutical companies and research institutions to produce an effective drug to fight against the coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which has affected 194 people in the Kingdom including 69 fatalities.

During a meeting with Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah in Jeddah on Tuesday, the National Scientific Committee for Infectious Diseases (NSCID) officials said that a request should be made to global firms to help the Kingdom in preventing the spread of the disease.

The NSCID officials included Deputy Health Minister Dr. Mansour Al-Hawasi and Dr. Hamza Kosheim deputy health minister for planning and development.

Dwelling on the status of coronavirus, the committee said the situation in the western province is well under control and there were only 28 positive cases in the region, which account for 14.4 percent of the total number of cases in the Kingdom. Riyadh recorded the largest number of coronavirus patients at 82 followed by Jeddah, while Al-Ahsa had 25 cases.

The members explained that the sudden eruption of the virus in Jeddah was mainly due to the transitional weather which is currently shifting from winter to spring.

The committee told the minister that effective steps have been taken in all Jeddah hospitals to act in emergency situations not only for coronavirus but also for other infectious diseases that could erupt from time to time.

The Kingdom experienced SAARs in 2003, the H1N1 influenza virus in 2009 and coronavirus in September 2012. The first case of the coronavirus was found in Bisha.

The ministry has set up a 24-hour watch to evaluate the status of the disease in the Kingdom and abroad.

Dr. Ziad Al-Memish, undersecretary to the Ministry of Health for Public Health, said that starting from September 2012, the Health Ministry had tested 18,000 samples of blood from suspected patients and found only 189 positive which included 68 deaths.

Around 1,300 patients were tested for the virus in Jeddah. He noted that the ministry has intensified procedures for dealing with such patients and close contacts and promoted health awareness to control the virus in Jeddah.

Earlier in a statement, Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said that the disease is well under control and urged people not to panic on false rumors about the spread of the virus in the Kingdom.

Al-Rabeeah said the Ministry of Health has been observing the increasing incidence of virus cases and effective efforts have been made to keep the disease under control.

Assuring citizens and residents of the precautionary measures taken by his ministry to keep the disease under control, Al-Rabeeah said that based on the guidelines set out by the World Health Organization (WHO) , the disease has not reached epidemic proportions yet.

“Therefore the incidence of the disease is very low compared to the population of the Kingdom,” the minister said, pointing out that the number of cases in Jeddah is also similar to other regions of the Kingdom.

There is no definite remedy for corona virus and the disease remains a global mystery, WHO said.