9 MERS related Deaths puts South Korea and the World on Alert

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Highlights

  • South Korea reported 9 Deaths and 2800 quarantined
  • 13 had contracted the virus, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 108.
  • Hong Kong issues travel advice to avoid unnecessary travel to South Korea
  • Ten quarantined people released in Hong Kong and Guangzhou
  • South Korean Leader Postpones U.S. Trip.
  • More than 2,200 schools remained closed.
  • MERS symptoms are similar to those of pneumonia.
  • President’s approval ratings have plunged below 40 percent, according to recent surveys.

“President Park has been mobilizing all national resources to deal actively with the MERS outbreak,” Kim Sung-woo, Ms. Park’s senior secretary for public relations, said during a news briefing on Wednesday. “Nonetheless, given the anxiety among the people over the situation, she has postponed her plan to visit the United States.”

The government sources said that it will be interviewing all hospitalized pneumonia patients on Wednesday and verify their medical records to ensure if they had recently visited any of the hospitals where the infection had been found.  A 68-year-old man who had travelled to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries was South Korea’s first MERS case. Later he was discovered to have the virus on May 20.