Health authorities in Saudi Arabia have announced the deaths of another three people from the MERS respiratory virus, taking the country's toll to 160.
The health ministry's daily bulletin on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in the Gulf nation said the latest people to die were two women, aged 72 and 54, and a 63-year-old man.
Since MERS first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012, authorities have recorded 514 infections from the mystery virus for which there is currently no known antidote.
Other nations including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have also recorded cases, mostly in people who had been to the desert kingdom.
The Netherlands reported its second case on Thursday, after a relative of its first infected person became ill.
'The woman is a family member of the man who was diagnosed yesterday,' the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said in a statement.
She was infected on the same trip to Saudi Arabia, where she spent two weeks sharing a hotel room with the man who was diagnosed on Wednesday, and visited a dromedary farm, the RIVM said.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said its emergency committee, which includes global medical and policy experts, had flagged mounting concerns about the potentially fatal virus.
The WHO called on countries to improve infection prevention and control, collect more data on the virus and to be vigilant in preventing it from spreading to vulnerable countries, notably in Africa.
But it has so far stopped short of declaring an international health emergency, which would have far-reaching implications such as travel and trade restrictions on affected countries.