The health of a South Korean man who entered China with the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus deteriorated and he was on a respirator, Chinese state media reported yesterday, as South Korea confirmed the nation’s first two deaths from the virus.
South Korea has reported 24 cases of the disease since its first, found last month in a man who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
Most of South Korea’s cases have had connections to the first patient — either medical staff who treated him or patients who stayed near him at the hospital before he was diagnosed, and their relatives.
Photo: Reuters
Tests on a 58-year-old woman who died on Monday showed she had been infected, the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement. A 71-year-old man who tested positive last week also died, it said.
The statement said both stayed at the hospital with the first case.
Officials yesterday said that about 750 people in South Korea were isolated at home or in state facilities after having contact with infected people.
Photo:EPA
More than 50 schools and kindergartens near a hospital near Seoul where the 58-year-old patient who died was treated have canceled classes from today until Friday to let children stay at home, according to the education agency in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul.
Separately, reports emerged online that the hospital selected staff to treat the first case by drawing straws and that single employees were sent first.
The Huizhou Central People’s Hospital said nurses were asked to draw lots because there were “too many volunteers,” a news Web site based in Shanghai said on Monday.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
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