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| World Health Organization assistant director general Keiji Fukuda, right, is escorted by Samsung Medical Center President Song Jae-hoon during an inspection of the hospital in Seoul, an epicenter of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
13 more cases confirmed
By Kim Rahn
Two more people infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have died, raising the death toll to nine, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Wednesday.
The number of confirmed cases since the first case was reported on May 20 also rose by 13 to 108.
The two latest deaths were a 62-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman. Both contracted the disease while visiting Samsung Medical Center's emergency room where the nation's 14th patient stayed.
Korea now has the second-largest number of MERS patients in the world following Saudi Arabia that has had 1,020 since the disease first emerged there.
Ten of the 13 new cases contracted the disease while staying at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, which became the second epicenter of the virus. The ministry expected the spread of the disease from the hospital to slow down as only three new cases were confirmed Tuesday, but the figure has again increased.
"We expect more cases from Samsung Medical Center for two to three days," a ministry official said.
One of the confirmed new cases is an ethnic Korean-Chinese woman, 64, who worked as a caregiver at the Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital in Gyeonggi Province. She is the only foreign national diagnosed with MERS so far and was at the same ward as the nation's 15th patient.
A pregnant woman, who had tested positive in her first examination by Samsung Medical Center, later tested negative in a second test by the regional health authority in Seoul.
As more cases are found, a growing number of hospitals have become subject to monitoring. They include Seoul St. Mary's Hospital and Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital in Seoul.
Following the latest two deaths, the ministry said another 11 patients were in an unstable condition.
Meanwhile, one patient has recovered and was released from a quarantine facility, meaning a total of four confirmed cases have recovered so far.
More than 3,400 people have been isolated at government-designated facilities or their homes. The government is now conducting tests on 229 of them.
The ministry said it would separate hospitals for confirmed cases and those suspected of having MERS. "Sixteen large-sized hospitals nationwide, which have negative-pressure isolation units, will treat confirmed cases, while 32 others will deal with suspected cases," the official said.
The government urged people who visited the hospitals where MERS patients were confirmed to avoid overseas travel if possible ― an effort to prevent the disease from spreading to neighboring countries, as a man with MERS symptoms pushed ahead with business trip to China last month and was later diagnosed with the disease.
The Ministry of Education said that more than 2,400 kindergartens and schools have been shut down for fear of the virus.
