Indian nurse doesn't have Wuhan coronavirus: Saudi

Riyadh, Jan 24 (IANS) The Saudi Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has confirmed two cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Abha city, ruling out media reports that an Indian nurse in the Kingdom was infected with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that originated in China.

"No cases of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in #Saudi_Arabia so far," the Khaleej Times reported on Friday citing a CDC tweet on Thursday night.

Instead, two female healthcare workers from Abha City, ages 38 and 27 respectively, have been diagnosed with MERS, it added.

The development comes after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday wrote to Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar saying that that nurses working at the Jazeera Abha Al Hayath Hospital in Saudi Arabia have been identified as being infected with the coronavirus.

Meanwhile on Friday, Chinese authorities confirmed 830 new cases in the country, with a total of 25 fatalities.

The new virus was first spotted in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province.

Corona viruses can infect both animals and people, and cause illness of the respiratory tract.

The symptoms of infection include high fever, difficulty in breathing among others. Detection becomes difficult when this surfaces like flu or a bad cold.

The incubation period from the time of exposure to the onset of symptoms is around two weeks.