Riyadh, Oct 10 (IANS): Thirty three percent of a total of 1,252 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus cases reported over the past four years in Saudi Arabia took place within hospitals, a media report said on Saturday.

According to statistics, 413 cases emerged inside hospitals, while 12 percent of total cases involved health workers inside hospitals and clinics, Arab News reported.

Thirteen percent involved people who came in contact with sick people inside their homes, while 699 cases, or 56 percent, have fully recovered.

This comes as the health ministry has instructed all health department managers to clamp down on those refusing to obtain treatment and are suspected of having the virus.

The ministry also confirmed it is ready to take harsher measures if the patient refuses to comply and insists on leaving the hospital.

On Friday, it announced that no new cases have been reported for the seventh day in a row, as well as no new deaths.

MERS was first discovered in 2012. So far, 518 infected people have died in Saudi Arabia.

MERS is a viral disease that is still fairly new to humans. No vaccine or treatment is currently available for the disease, which has a high fatality rate of around 36 percent globally.