of SARS-CoV or SARSr-CoV. A decade later, another highly pathogenic human CoV, MERS-CoV, emerged, and the first patient with MERS-CoV infection was reported in Saudi Arabia in June 2012 (Zaki et al., 2012). By December 26, 2019, a total of 2,494 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS, including 858