Coronavirus: First cases of deadly virus in Middle East reported

Patients are in stable condition, authorities say

Four members of a Chinese family have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the United Arab Emirates, the first known cases in the Middle East, the country’s health ministry have said.

Officials said they had arrived from Wuhan, the city in China where the disease originated.

The family members are in a stable condition and under medical observation, the ministry said.

The virus – which causes patients to have flu-like symptoms but can develop into pneumonia – has killed more than 130 people in China.

The health ministry did not say where the family members were being treated or when they arrived in the UAE.

China coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus

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China coronavirus: Cases soar of deadly new flu-like virus

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  Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city of Wuhan, arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. The Chinese army deployed medical specialists to the epicentre of the spiralling viral outbreak that has killed and spread around the world

  AFP via Getty

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  A patient assisted by medical staff gets off an ambulance in Wuhan

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  People line up to buy face masks from a medical supply company in Nanning, southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Countries began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS

  Chinatopix via AP

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  Millions spent their normally festive Lunar New Year holiday under lockdown

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  Children with face masks wash their hands before prayer at Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Thailand has detected eight Coronavirus cases so far

  AFP via Getty

• 6/65 An Indonesian health officer points at the screen of a thermal scanner for passengers

  China confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans

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  Hospital workers wearing protective eyewear and masks examine an Indonesian student who returned from China in quarantine at a hospital in Banda Aceh

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  Ambulance staff dispose of an outfit at the hospital in Wuhan

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  A person checks the temperature of a passenger to help stop the spread of a deadly virus as he arrives at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International airport in Palembang

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  Nepali students, wearing face masks, attend a class at Matribhumi School in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu

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  Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital

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  Two Buddhist monks wear face masks while walking along a street in Yangon

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  Staff disinfecting a residential area in Ruichang, part of Jiujiang in China’s central Jiangxi province

  AFP via Getty

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  Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on January 27, 2020. – China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people, state media reported on January 24. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) HECTOR RETAMAL

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  Vapor blurs the goggles of an ambulance driver while they work, in Wuhan

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  Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou

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  Medical staff getting on an ambulance in Wuhan

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  A vendor of traditional masks wears a facial mask at his shop in Thamel

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  An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar

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  Medical staff members arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital

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  An ambulance driver talking with medical staff in Wuhan

  AFP via Getty

• 22/65 Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market

  The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub

  AFP via Getty

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  Workers produce protective suits at a factory in Nantong

  AFP via Getty

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  Passengers scanned by thermal imaging for body temperature as they go through health measures and procedures after they landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan

  Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty

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  A Thai royal guard wears a mask while on duty at the Grand Palace in Bangkok

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  A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing

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  Medical staff members at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital

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  A shopper wearing goggles with a face mask and gloves uses a self checkout machine at a supermarket in Wuhan

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  Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital

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  Members of the Italian Red Cross putting on protective gear, getting ready to give health checks to passengers that landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a southern airlines flight from Wuhan

  Aeroporto Di Roma/AFP via Getty

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  A member of the Hong Kong government’s Civil Aid Service gestures at the entrance to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village which is being used as one of two quarantine centres for people who have been in close proximity with suspected cases of a SARS-type virus. Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced

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  Medical staff wearing protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan

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  A Malaysia Health official checks passengers going through a thermal scanner upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport

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• 34/65 Staff disinfecting Yingtan North Railway Station, China

  China banned trains and planes from leaving the major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on January 23, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed lives and spread to other countries

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  A passenger walks past a quarantine control station at Narita airport, Japan

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  Patients queue up to seek treatment in Wuhan Tongji Hospital Fever Clinic, in Wuhan

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  Quarantine workers spray disinfectant at Incheon International Airport, South Korea

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  A member of staff checks the temperature of a guest entering the casino of the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau, after it reported its first case of the new SARS-like virus

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• 39/65 Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital

  Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans

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  Members of the Three Gorges Medical Laboratory offering free masks to the public in Yichang, China

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  Gabriel Leung, right, chair professor of public health medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, speaks about the extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China

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  Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conducting searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market

  AFP via Getty

• 43/65 A quarantine officer at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, uses an electronic thermometer to check the temperature of passengers arriving by plane from Wuhan

  The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths

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  A screen shows cancelled flights at Tianhe airport in Wuhan

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  Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital

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  Health officials hand out information about the current coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

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  A store owner argues with security guards as he attempts to enter the closed Huanan wholesale seafood market

  AFP via Getty

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  Workers producing facemasks at a factory in Handan, China’s northern Hebei province

  AFP via Getty

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  Medical staff and security personnel stop patients’ family members from being too close to the Jinyintan hospital

  Reuters

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  maya-goodfellowAn airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport

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  A rescue worker walks past a notice about new coronavirus that has broken out in China

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  Health officials wear face masks at an inspection site at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang

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  Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital

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  A staff member checks body temperature of a child after a train from Wuhan arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou

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  A quarantine station measures passenger body temperatures at Narita Airport

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  Passengers walk past a notice displayed near a quarantine control station at Narita airport

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  Passengers walk past a poster alerting on coronavirus screening ahead upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport

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  An employee sprays disinfectant on a train, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul

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  Kazakh sanitary-epidemiological service worker uses a thermal scanner to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms possibly connected with the previously unknown coronavirus, at Almaty International Airport, Kazakhstan

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  Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading “face masks are sold out” at her pharmacy in Shanghai

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  The Wuhan Medical Treatment Center,

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  A worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan

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  Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong

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  A notice for passengers from Wuhan

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  A man wears a mask while riding on mobike past the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market

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The ministry and a government information office did not respond to a request for further comment.

Nearly 60 cases have been reported in 15 countries outside China, including the US, France and Singapore.

Fears of the spreading virus have pushed airlines to reduce flights to China.

Emirates, the UAE’s biggest airline, said on Wednesday its flights were operating normally.

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) health committee met on Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss the coronavirus and to unify Gulf efforts to prevent its spread, according to local media.

Reuters