Saudi health authorities announced Wednesday two new deaths from the MERS coronavirus in the kingdom, where 16 more infections were also detected.

The two new MERS deaths in Saudi bring the toll to 107 since the disease appeared in the kingdom in September 2012, the Health Ministry said.

Public concern over the spread of MERS mounted earlier this month after the resignation of at least four doctors at Jeddah’s King Fahd Hospital who refused to treat patients for fear of infection.

Acting Health Minister Adel Fakieh said Tuesday that measures to contain the spread of MERS “will be announced in the coming days” as Western experts and representatives of the World Health Organization met in Riyadh this week.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, 9 percent of whom died. (AFP)