A team of WHO officials and international scientists will visit Al-Ahsa province today to investigate the outbreak of novel coronavirus in the region.

The team arrived in Riyadh yesterday on an invitation from the Ministry of Health. The virus has infected 15 people and killed seven in the Eastern Province.

Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News that two WHO officials and specialists from Canada and the US will be flown to the Hofuf area today, where the first infected patients were diagnosed. The most recent infections involve two men aged 48 and 58 years of age.

France reported its first case on Wednesday in a 65-year-old Frenchman who had recently returned from Dubai.