The UAE has reported that the new respiratory virus related to Sars has claimed the life of an UAE resident, while another one is critically ill, said a report.

The Emirati authorities had notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) of these two laboratory-confirmed cases with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) over the week, reported the Gulf News.

Of these two patients, a 40-year old man from Oman died on Monday (March 24) at an Abu Dhabi hospital. He had  underlying medical conditions, and was first admitted to a hospital in Muscat.

On March 17, he was admitted to an Abu Dhabi facility. The patient has not recently travelled outside Oman and the UAE, and had no recorded contacts with animals or other Mers-CoV patients, the report stated.

The second patient is a 49-year-old from Abu Dhabi whose condition is currently critical. The patient had been admitted to hospital in late February, and was discharged after a few days because his condition had improved. On March 16, he was readmitted, and laboratory tests confirmed Mers-CoV infection.

Although the patient has not travelled recently, he is said to have been in contact with a 68-year-old farm owner from Abu Dhabi who was diagnosed with Mers earlier and is now stable.