JUNE 29 (Reuters) — South Korea’s health ministry reported no additional cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on Monday (June 29) for the second day in a row.
The health ministry said the total number of confirmed MERS cases remained at 182, and 93 patients had been discharged from hospital. There were no deaths, the ministry added, leaving the total of dead from the outbreak at 32.
“There were no more deaths, and there were also no new confirmed cases of MERS yesterday. 43 patients are in stable condition, whereas 14 patients are listed as in an unstable condition,” said Jeong Eun-kyeong, South Korean Director of Disease Prevention Center at Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a daily news briefing.
South Korean health authorities said this week was a critical time for them in their fight against the spread of the virus.
“The number of people who are in an incubation period will reach a peak this week. Therefore, we will keep an eye on the situation and put our utmost efforts into preventing the further spread of MERS,” Kwon Deok-cheol, South Korean Assistant Minister of Healthcare Policy, told a briefing.
The outbreak in South Korea has been traced to a 68-year-old man who returned from a trip to the Middle East in early May and sought medical help at different hospitals before being diagnosed with the MERS virus.
First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a corona virus from the same family as the one that triggered the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine.