Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry confirmed to the Associated Press that there were three more cases of the new respiratory SARS-like related virus, which added to the number of cases reported this week including 5 fatal ones.

"The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has informed WHO [World Health Organization] of an additional three laboratory confirmed cases of infection with the novel coronavirus (nCoV)," the UN body said in a statement.

On Friday the ministry said that the three cases were part of an ongoing investigation. It reported that the two men and one woman were aged between 33 and 53 and that their symptoms first appeared over the past week.

According to aljazeera.com, the health ministry stated that it was taking "all precautionary measures for persons who have been in contact with the infected people ... and has taken samples from them to examine if they are infected".

However, the ministry has yet to release figures for how many people have been examined to see if they have the lethal disease.

According to news.asiaone.com, the UN has recently stated that the latest report brought the global total of laboratory confirmed cases to 27 and reported deaths to16.

The virus was first detected in mid-2012 and is in the family of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) viruses that cause the common cold. Around 10 years ago the severe acute respiratory syndrome triggered a scare when it killed some 800 people when it erupted in East Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts.