Saudi Arabia is alarmed by a raft of new cases of the MERS coronavirus, including a recent fatality that has raised the death toll in the country to 71, Saudi media reported today.

The latest fatality was a 52-year-old Saudi man. There have been 205 cases in the Middle Eastern nation since 2012, the kingdom’s Health Ministry reported.

Worryingly, there have been 37 confirmed cases in the western city of Jeddah, a key commercial and transit centre, in less than a month, marking a sharp uptick in the number of infections. The recent cases there included 21 health workers.

The virus, which began in the eastern part of the kingdom, has now spread to the west.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it has recorded 212 laboratory-confirmed MERS cases worldwide, of which 88 caused death.

Cases have been confirmed in north-western Jordan while neighbouring Yemen reported its first last week.

A Malaysian man who made a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia was the first to die in an Asian country outside the Middle East.

WHO experts are reportedly due to hold consultations in Riyadh this month.

- dpa