#13,901
Over the past couple of years, any week where we saw 6 MERS cases would have been considered an active week. There were two months in 2018 that only reported a 6 cases (Aug. & Dec.).
But after seeing 68 cases reported during February, averaging only 1 new case a day over the past 6 days represents a noticeable, and welcomed, slowdown.Particularly since we've not seen a new case reported from hard hit Wadi Aldwasir since Monday. Their case count remains at 50 since January 29th.
Today's announced case involves a hospitalized 78 y.o. male from Afeef City, listed as a primary case with recent camel contact. We saw a similar case in Epi Week 8 (45, M, camel contact) from Afeef City on February 19th.
While the number of new cases has continued to slow over the last week, we've already seen more Saudi MERS cases in the first 9 weeks of 2019 than were reported in the last 9 months of 2018.
