According to news reports, about 150 members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family have contracted the coronavirus.
Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulziz al Saud, the Governor of Riyadh and a nephew of King Salman, was confirmed to have tested positive by two doctors, a person close to the family told The New York Times.
King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) have retreated into isolation to avoid the outbreak.
Doctors at an elite hospital that treats royals are preparing 500 more beds for an expected influx of patients.
“Directives are to be ready for VIPs from around the country,” the operators of the elite facility, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, wrote in a “high alert” sent out electronically on Tuesday to senior doctors and later obtained by the Times.
“We don’t know how many cases we will get but high alert,” said the message, which instructed “all chronic patients to be moved out ASAP” and only “top urgent cases” will be accepted, according to the newspaper.
The alert added any infected staff members will now be treated at a less elite hospital to save room for royals.
There are thousands of Saudi princes. Many travel regularly to Europe and some are believed to have contracted the virus abroad and brought it back to Saudi Arabia, the report said.
