A hospital in Riyadh has been temporarily shut down for ignoring guidelines surrounding the fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Arab News has reported.
Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mirghalani reportedly said the hospital had ignored several warnings to strictly follow the ministry’s guidelines.
“We cannot compromise with the health of the people,” he was quoted as saying.
There have been at least 1,026 recorded infections and 376 deaths since the virus was detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to UN figures.
The hospital closure comes as the UN health experts said on Monday Saudi Arabia had to do more to investigate and control the deadly virus.
The World Health Organization also has this month warned of a possible outbreak following a surge of cases in Saudi Arabia detected last week.
In a major report on the virus published earlier this month, WHO blamed lax controls for a sudden outbreak in a Saudi hospital last year.
It also warned the virus would spread within households if the kingdom did not improve detection and treatment of MERS.
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