Ministry of Health launches awareness campaign against MERS-CoV‫.‬ (SPA)

The Health Ministry has stepped up efforts to reach out to people across the city to raise awareness about protection from the deadly coronavirus amid increasing concern among people.

The ministry reported three new cases of the MERS-CoV and the death of a 46-year-old man on Friday.

The new patients included one each in Jeddah, Madinah and Makkah. Four more patients were discharged from hospitals in Riyadh and Makkah following a full recovery.

In Makkah, the patient was a 19-year-old man suffering from diabetes.

In Madinah, the patient was a 20-year-old woman. Doctors described her condition as stable.
The latest figures revealed by the Ministry of Health have brought the total to 554 infections which include 178 deaths.

Dr. Sami Badawood, director of Ministry of Health in Jeddah, has urged people in general and students in particular not to believe rumors circulating on social media.

Health authorities in the city are fully equipped to deal with MERS or any other virus, he said.
The ministry has been targeting school students to raise the level of awareness and is now focusing on private sector and government offices.

The ministry is also starting centers to promote awareness about deadly diseases at airports and has started a similar unit at the Jeddah Islamic Port.

“We have conducted awareness camps in 48 boys schools for 23,432 students and 103 girls schools for 38,211 girls in Jeddah,” said Badawood.

“We have also visited a number of government and private sector offices in the city where Health Ministry team met with 12,236 employees to explain preventive and precautionary measures against coronavirus,” he said.