Four people have died in Saudi Arabia from a SARS-like coronavirus, the Health Ministry said Monday, bringing to 32 the number of deaths from the disease in the kingdom, dpa reported.
The ministry also announced that three new cases of the disease had been diagnosed, all in patients already suffering from chronic illnesses.
The strain of coronavirus, called MERS-CoV, was first discovered in 2012 in a man in Saudi Arabia.
France, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Tunisia, Britain and Italy have also reported infections.
The latest worldwide update was on Friday when the World Health Organization said there had been 58 laboratory-confirmed cases of the new virus, including 33 deaths.
MERS-CoV belongs to the same group of viruses as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which 10 years ago killed about 800 people.