MERS deaths: Health staff to get SR500,000 payout

The Ministries of Health, Finance and Civil Service are streamlining procedures to organize compensation for families of health practitioners who died after contracting coronavirus.
The compensation will total SR500,000, and patients are to be treated as martyrs in the line of duty.
The system includes all Saudi and non-Saudi health practitioners, sources told the local media.
The move follows a Cabinet committee recommendation for a grant of SR500,000 to the family of a patient who died from corona.
A committee comprising representatives from the Ministries of Health, Finance and Civil Service has been assigned that task of putting the procedures and mechanism in place for distributing compensation.
Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh has said that health practitioners who died after being exposed to coronavirus will be considered martyrs.
The Health Ministry, meanwhile, announced the death of a 56-year-old Saudi woman from the disease.
According to the ministry’s Command and Control Center (CCC), the latest victim is from Al-Kharj.
The ministry also announced three new cases. They are two Saudis, aged 62 and 57, from Riyadh, and another citizen, aged 49, from Dammam.
“Two patients, one each from Riyadh and Dammam, are stated to be critical. The condition of the third patient is stable,” said an official at the CCC.
According to the center, 475 patients have so far recovered from virus.
It said 14 active cases are currently being treated at various hospitals across the Kingdom
The ministry announced three deaths and four confirmed corona cases on Friday, taking the total number of victims to 365.