JEDDAH — Cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus have dropped for the fifth week in a row but the situation cannot yet be described as stable, according to a senior health official. “Only two confirmed cases of coronavirus were registered during the week Apr. 19-25 but this does not mean that the country is now completely free of the deadly virus,” said Dr. Abdulaziz Bin Saeed, undersecretary of the Health Ministry for public health. “Not a single case of coronavirus has been registered anywhere in the Kingdom during the past four days.” Saeed, also the head of the ministry's command and control center, said one of the two coronavirus cases was in Riyadh and the other in Hofuf. “Compared to the same period last year when 102 cases of coronavirus were reported, the current drop is estimated to be 98 percent,” he said. Saeed, however, warned that the sharp drop does not mean that the virus has been eradicated. “We are still very much in the flu season and we have to continue our efforts to contain the spread of the virus.” He said during the past few days a total of 1,008 samples were tested for the virus in the ministry's laboratories. According to him, 550 patients out of 981 who contracted the disease since September 2012 have completely recovered, just over 56 percent. Saeed said the recent cases were preliminary and did not constitute any serious threat to the lives of the patients. He said there are 20 command and control centers all over the Kingdom to fight the spread of contagious diseases.
