Egypt probing suspected MERS coronavirus death

A person suspected to have been suffering from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has died in the Egyptian city of Port Said, the state television channel Nile News reported on Monday, quoting a Health Ministry official. The report said the cause of death, which would be Egypt’s first from the disease, had yet to be confirmed. The MERS coronavirus emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and is from the same family as the SARS virus, which killed around 800 people worldwide after first appearing in China in 2002. MERS can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia.