MERS cases jump by 8 today...biggest 24-hours in 15-months?

Distribution go cases by site of likely acquisition.
Based on publicly available data.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) individual list of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases that have been acquired within its borders (and that's just to the best of my knowledge) is at 101. It's just a number but its also 81.5% of all laboratory confirmed cases to date. And it rose to 124 by a jump of 8 cases today (VDU time that is).

The latest KSA cases continue to pop up in Hafr Al Batin (Batin) Medinah (Medina) and Riyadh. Contacts (~4/8), healthcare workers (~1/8) and comorbidities (~3/8) feature heavily - and that's just among the ones with those details included. We're missing sex on most and dates of onset have been getting more rare since May.

Within those 8 cases are 3 deaths (37.5% of those cases). Are these the first reports of these people? How long is the turnaround time for testing currently? This proportion is below the global proportion of fatal cases (PFC) which as of just now stands at 46% (57 deaths have have data available to use in this calculation)

The other thing we should factor in is co-infections with other respiratory viruses, and with bacteria. The viruses, as noted in my previous post, may now be starting to increase in prevalence as the "cooler" months affect the region. None of the broader testing data (presumably they were screened for other pathogens as well) are available on recent cases and few details available on earlier cases. 

Some things that are unknown on this topic:

1. How MERS-CoV interacts with other viruses - has any virus just finished up its seasonal peak? Something that may have interfered with MERS-CoV circulation at a population level?
2. Are we seeing more MERS-CoV cases now because of a change in environmental conditions? His could be anything from temperature to humidity to impact on animal movements to festivals to dust storms

8 cases in 1 day. I think the first time I have seen so many cases in a row on my list in a 24-hour period (not actually at 24-hours yet). Many questions start arising without answers.

Even with Prof Memish's 2nd personal update through ProMED yesterday, it feels like cases are starting to appear faster than the local health authorities in these regions can manage them. Or has something changed with the virus itself?