The WHO has recently updated a number of its interim guidance documents for the novel coronavirus including clinical management (11th February) and the case definition for reporting (19th February);

An article published on 21 June in the New England Journal of Medicine describes a healthcare associated outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) infection in the Al-Ahsa region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The authors conclude that bats might play a role in human infection although this does not exclude the possibility of other hosts.

​Since the last ECDC update on 17 June 2013, 13 new confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and two deaths have been reported by the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia.

​​By 22 November 2013, 160 cases of MERS have been reported. All cases have either occurred in the Middle East or have direct links to a primary case infected in the Middle East.

​On 18 April 2014, the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) announced a laboratory confirmed case of MERS-CoV infection in a 69 year old male patient.

​As of 6 May 2014, 495 cases of MERS-CoV have been reported globally, including 141 deaths.

Since April 2012 and as of 16 May 2014, 621 cases of MERS-CoV infection have been reported globally, including 188 deaths.

​Since April 2012 and as of 4 June 2014, 815 cases of MERS-CoV infection have been reported by local health authorities worldwide, including 313 deaths.

​On 18 October 2014, the Ministry of Health Turkey reported that a Turkish citizen working in Saudi Arabia died on 11 October 2014, ten days after onset of a confirmed MERS-CoV infection.