National Guard staff advised against travel

JEDDAH: The Health Ministry has advised the employees of the National Guard health facilities to delay their travel plans by two weeks as a precautionary measure against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
The decision, which came into effect Thursday, has been taken with a view to preventing the employees’ families from getting infected with the virus, local media reported Saturday.
Acting on the directive, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, which is under the National Guard Ministry, also issued instructions to all of its staff, including male and female students, not to visit its entertainment and market centers in the King Abdulaziz Medical City.
Yousef Al-Essa, the university president, said the move follows a rise in MERS cases in the Kingdom. He said the curbs on visits to its facilities would continue until further notice.
An expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) will arrive in Riyadh next week to assess the latest spike in infections and deaths from MERS-CoV. Izz Al-Din Muhseini, the Kingdom’s WHO representative, has said that the expert would evaluate the measures taken by the ministry, and participate in meetings held by ministry officials.
The Health Ministry recently allayed fears over the increase in cases in the capital, saying that they were mostly from a single source.