Saudi Arabia says a man has died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 63 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of the outbreak.

The health ministry said on Friday that the latest victim, a 19-year-old, died in the city of al-Kharj, southeast of Riyadh, according to a report from the Associated Press news agency.

Two of his sisters are in hospital on suspicion they have been infected with the virus.

The new virus is related to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. It belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.