After a review on health data, Saudi Arabia has found an additional 113 confirmed cases of the dangerous Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that had not been previously recorded. That brings the number of confirmed cases to 688.

The number of deaths from MERS has increased as well from 190 to 282, according to a statement released by email from the Health Ministry.

Data was re-examined from all the way back to 2012 when MERS was first discovered. In the data, 53 patients were known to still be getting treatment for MERS, while 353 had recovered from it, according to the statement.

Trying to improve data collection and standardize the way information is analyzed is something the Health Ministry is putting into place.

Experts said that communication and handling by Saudi officials was poor. They said, if Saudi officials would have reached out to outside help from countries around the world, the number of outbreaks and deaths from MERS could have been greatly reduced over the last two years.

"While the review has resulted in a higher total number of previously unreported cases, we still see a decline in the number of new cases reported over the past few weeks," Tariq Madani, head of the ministry's scientific advisory board, was quoted as saying in the emailed statement. 

In addition to the new data discovery, Saudi Arabia has fired Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish for his handling of the MERS outbreak.

"Acting Health Minister Adel Fakieh has issued a decision today to relieve Deputy Health Minister Doctor Ziad Memish from his position," said a statement posted on the ministry's website in Arabic on Monday. It did not elaborate 

Besides Memish, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah was fired as well in recent weeks because of the amount of outbreaks of MERS increasing rapidly in mid-April.

MERS is a virus that causes coughing, fever and sometimes fatal pneumonia. The likely origin of the virus is said to be from camels.