Saudi Arabia reports new case of Sars-like coronavirus

Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry has confirmed that a second person in the kingdom has contracted a new respiratory virus related to Sars, bringing to three the number of those sickened by it in the Gulf region in recent weeks.

The ministry said the unidentified patient was hospitalised with "pneumonia caused by the new virus known as novel Coronavirus". It said the patient had since recovered and that he had not travelled outside Riyadh, but did not say when, where or how the person contracted the virus.

The germ is a coronavirus, from a family of viruses that cause the common cold as well as Sars - the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed some 800 people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 epidemic.

The patient "received suitable treatment and has been cured," said the statement.

"These are individual cases and most of those infected with this virus have been cured after being provided with suitable treatment," it added.

The World Health Organisation said in September that the illness in the coronavirus family had caused the death of a Saudi national.