Saudi Arabia witnessed a major uptick in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, MERS-CoV, cases when compared with the previous death toll of 190.

Since 2012, 688 confirmed cases of MERS have been reported in the Gulf kingdom, informed the Saudi Ministry of Health. The number of people who died from MERS stands at 282. The high number of cases has been reported in Riyadh and Jeddah. 353 patients have recovered and 53 are still recovering. Saudi Arabian authorities have sacked one more top health official.

Around five weeks ago, Saudi Arabia reported 339 cases of MERS-CoV and 102 resulted in deaths. In fact, the World Health Organization confirmed 636 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection. Though Saudi Arabia is affected a lot by the virus, many countries across the globe have also confirmed about the presence of the virus, mainly among travelers who came back from Saudi Arabia.

MERS is considered to be quite lethal. Its symptoms range from severe acute respiratory illness, fever, cough and shortness of breath. In chronic cases, patients develop pneumonia and kidney failure. It is considered that the virus originated in 2012 on the Arabian Peninsula.

Seeing the increasing number of cases, international health experts have criticized the Saudi government. The health ministry said though the figures are up, the spread rate is reducing.

The new figures came after a day when the Acting Health Minister, Adel Faqih, announced he has relieved Deputy Health Minister Dr. Ziad Memish from his post.