A Saudi man has died of MERS in the western city of Jeddah, where authorities have sought to calm fears over the spreading respiratory illness, the health ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry said five more people were infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, including two medics, all in Jeddah.
The latest death of a 52-year-old brings to 71 the total number of people to have died from MERS, out of 205 infections in Saudi Arabia, it added.
Health authorities on Tuesday reported the death of a 59-year-old, also in Jeddah, as well as four other infections in the same city, including three medics.
The MERS virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia but has spread across other areas.
The World Health Organisation said last week it had been told of 212 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 88 have proved fatal.
There is no known vaccine for MERS.
The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine per cent of whom died.
