JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, April 27, 2014 (AFP) - The Saudi health ministry announced eight new deaths from the MERS virus on Sunday taking the kingdom's death toll from the disease to 102.
A full 39 of the deaths have been this month, sparking growing public concern about the virus that first emerged in April 2012.
Among the latest deaths was a nine-month-old infant, the ministry said.
The number of recorded infections in the kingdom has risen to 339, it added.
Among them were four medical staff at a single hospital in Tabuk in the northwest, two doctors - one Egyptian and one Syrian - and two Philippine nurses.
Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in the western city of Jeddah led to the temporary closure of a main hospital's emergency room.
At least four doctors at Jeddah's King Fahd Hospital resigned earlier this month after refusing to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.
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