South Korea yesterday recorded its sixth death and biggest single-day jump in Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) infections, with 23 new cases in the largest outbreak of the virus outside Saudi Arabia.
From just four cases two weeks ago, the total number of infections now stands at 87, including six people who have died.
The latest fatality was an 80-year-old man who died yesterday morning in a hospital in Daejeon, 140km south of Seoul, the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare said.
Photo: EPA
The outbreak has triggered widespread public concern in South Korea, with 2,500 people placed under quarantine orders and nearly 2,000 schools — mostly in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province — closed down.
However, experts say the likelihood of a serious epidemic is remote, given that the MERS virus is not easily transmitted person-to-person.
“The chance of a massive outbreak in South Korea is not high,” said Ho Pak-leung, a microbiology expert at the University of Hong Kong.
“Rather I think there will be continued transmissions at a low level,” he said.
Among the new cases announced yesterday, most were infected at the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul — one of the country’s largest hospitals where nearly 900 patients and staff have now been placed under observation.
A 16-year-old student became the first teenage case, but the South Korean Ministry of Education said that he had contracted the virus while already in hospital, so it was “not possible” that he had infected any classmates at school.
All the infections so far have been restricted to hospitals.
Hundreds of public events, school trips and sporting fixtures have been cancelled, with movie theaters, theme parks and shopping malls reporting big drops in the number of customers.
Ticket sales at movie theatres fell to 2.46 million for the first week of this month, down from 3.85 million a week earlier, according to the Korea Film Council.
Both E-Mart and Lotte Mart, two of the country’s biggest supermarket chains, reported a 12 percent drop in weekly store sales, coupled with a 50 percent surge in online sales.
Those who did venture to the stores were greeted by staff who wiped down the handles of the shopping carts before and after use.
Schools that remained open yesterday morning screened students arriving for class, checking their temperature with an ear thermometer at the gate and sending home anyone with even a mild fever.
Lee Hyun-shil, who was taking her son to a kindergarten in Seoul, said she was in “utter shock” over the scale of the outbreak.
“I can’t believe this is happening in South Korea,” Lee said. “I am really worried these days ... and wonder if it’s OK to use a subway to go somewhere.”
Minister of Health and Welfare Moon Hyung-pyo yesterday told parliament that he was cautiously optimistic.
“I’m cautiously predicting, but I think the peak was reached today,” he said, referring to the outbreak. “It’ll hopefully start looking stable from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”
South Korean President Park Geun-hye urged nationwide efforts to combat the disease.
“Implications for economic activities should be not overlooked as domestic consumption in sectors such as tourism may weaken due to MERS,” Park said during a visit to MERS response headquarters in Seoul, according to her office’s Web site.
A team of officials from the WHO yesterday arrived in Seoul to help investigate the outbreak and offer advice on its containment.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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