The coronavirus that causes MERS continues to circulate since it emerged in 2012, mainly in Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar. In this sense, and taking into account that we also have another coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, circulating around the world, the WHO's alert to ensure that all those travelling to the World Cup were prepared for possible symptoms of the infection makes a lot of sense.

It should also be borne in mind that, at present, the transmission of MERS-CoV between people is not very efficient, unless they are very vulnerable people (immunocompromised, etc.), but transmission is more efficient from camels to humans and therefore the WHO recommended being careful with this type of risky contact.

Unfortunately, none of the cases of possible infections are being diagnosed (e.g. by PCR, which has been established for years) as to whether these infections are MERS-CoV or not, and therefore MERS-CoV ("camel virus") cannot be blamed with certainty for these cases. Such a diagnosis would have been highly desirable, as a co-infection of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. on return to the country of origin) could cause much more severe disease, as has been determined in the few cases of co-infection with these two coronaviruses described during the pandemic.

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