No additional deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or new infections have been filed overnight, the government said Saturday, possibly indicating the outbreak here may be nearing an end.
The number of people diagnosed with the potentially deadly disease remained unchanged from the previous day at 166, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
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Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn (second from left) inspects a hospital in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province on Saturday. Yonhap |
On Friday, the number of MERS patient had increased only by one, prompting a careful outlook of the end of the outbreak from ministry officials.
The small increase in the number of MERS patients "leads us to believe the spread of the disease is now on the decline," an official from the ministry's emergency control center said earlier.
As of Saturday, the country's death toll from MERS remained at 24, also unchanged from the previous day.
Still, ministry officials noted the number of patients may begin growing again as thousands of people remain as suspected cases.
As of Friday, 5,930 people were in isolation, mostly in their own homes, for possible infection after coming in close contact with MERS patients.
So far, 36 people diagnosed with the disease have been discharged from hospitals following complete recoveries.
Out of the remaining 106 MERS patients, 15 are currently in unstable conditions, the ministry said.
MERS is a viral respiratory disease first found in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Before South Korea reported its first or index case on May 20, only about 1,100 cases had been reported in some 20 countries throughout the world.
Until the outbreak here, the disease had a very high fatality rate of over 40 percent as there currently is no vaccine or treatment for the disease.
As of Saturday, the fatality rate in South Korea remained at 14.5 percent. (Yonhap)
