Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Saudi Arabia’s Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah was “relieved of his post” on Monday and appointed as advisor to the Royal Court. Meanwhile, Labor Minister Adel bin Mohammad Faqih was assigned to take over the health portfolio.

“A royal order announced here today that Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah was relieved of his post as minister of health and was appointed as advisor at the Royal Court,” the SPA state news agency reported.

It added that Minister of Labor Faqih “was assigned to act as minister of health besides continuing as the minister of labor.”

The kingdom reported on Sunday 13 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a SARS-like virus.

Al-Rabeeah on Sunday told a televised news conference that there was no medical reason to impose stricter preventative measures against the spread of MERS, according to Reuters.

Saudi Arabia has reported 244 cases of MERS since the disease was identified in 2012, of which 79 have been fatal, Reuters reported. The spread of new infections slowed during the winter, but there has been a sudden increase in cases this month.

The 49 confirmed infections announced over the past week, mostly in the port city of Jeddah, represent a four-fold increase in the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak began.

On Sunday, al-Rabeeah said he thought the sudden increase of new cases in Jeddah might have a seasonal cause, given there was also an uptick in infections about a year ago, but added that he had "no idea" why that might be, Reuters said.

In a statement posted on the Health Ministry’s website on April 9, al-Rabeeah said the situation of the MERS virus was still reassuring. “The number of Corona cases recorded is not different in Jeddah than all other regions of the Kingdom,” he said.

“The Ministry of Health (MOH) has noticed, by the onset of 11 cases in Jeddah, such limited increase of cases over the past few weeks. However, the rate of incidence is still low, and doesn’t represent an epidemic,” he noted.

In the statement, he urged people “not to be misled by rumors or unreliable information published via the social networking sites” and called on the news media seek information about the virus from reliable state sources.

“The Ministry is to inform all people of the updates or any important information in this regard,” stated al-Rabeeah

He said: “The Coronavirus is novel and still mysterious worldwide, that we do not yet know a lot about ways of its transmission. Even, there is neither vaccine nor medicine for it.”


*Alarabiya