The Health Ministry sent out thousands of SMSes on Thursday as part of its awareness program to contain the spread of the MERS coronavirus, which has infected over 500 people in the Kingdom.

Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih launched a Kingdom-wide awareness campaign on the coronavirus in Jeddah earlier this month to empower the public with crucial up-to-date information on how to combat the deadly virus.

The campaign was launched by Fakeih in cooperation the WHO.

“The government is doing its best to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but we need everyone’s help in implementing simple precautions to prevent its spread,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ministry reported seven new cases and one death from the coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 177 since September 2012.

The new cases included four men.

There are four patients in Jeddah, one in Riyadh, one in Madinah and one in Qunfudah.
Only one of these patients, a 50-year-old female who developed respiratory symptoms on May 10, is at the intensive care unit of a government hospital in Jeddah, while the other patients are said to be stable, according to doctors.

A 22-year-old and 60-year-old man have been discharged from a Jeddah hospital after making a full recovery.