2012 mers outbreak 2012 mers outbreak since 2012, an outbreak of middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus has affected several countries, primarily in its namesake, the middle east. the virus, which causes middle east respiratory syndrome (mers), is a novel coronavirus that was first identified in a patient from jeddah, saudi arabia on june 6, 2012. mers confirmed cases and deathsfrom may 2013 to january 2020 cases deaths fatality who total as of january 2021 2566 882 34% ecdc total as of march 2021 2586 939 36% reported confirmed cases per country saudi arabia 2173 808 37% south korea 186 38 20% united arab emirates 92 13 14% jordan 19 6 32% qatar 19 5 26% oman 11 3 27% iran 6 2 33% united kingdom 5 3 60% kuwait 4 2 50% germany 3 2 66% tunisia 3 1 33% philippines 3 0 0% thailand 3 0 0% algeria 2 1 50% france 2 1 50% malaysia 2 1 50% austria 2 1 50% spain 2 0 0% netherlands 2 0 0% united states 2 0 0% lebanon 2 0 0% greece 1 1 100% turkey 1 1 100% yemen 1 1 100% egypt 1 0 0% italy 1 0 0% bahrain 1 0 0% china 1 0 0% reported total 2550 890 32% coronaviruses types alphacoronavirus betacoronavirus gammacoronavirus deltacoronavirus diseases common cold sars mers covid-19 vaccines covid-19 vaccine epidemics and pandemics sars (2002–2004) mers 2012 2015 2018 covid-19 (2019-present)