The number of people diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea continued to remain unchanged at 186 on Saturday, with the death toll also staying flat for three weeks, the government said.
The country’s death toll from the disease stood at 36 for the 21st consecutive day, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Out of those infected so far, 138 patients have been discharged from hospitals following complete recoveries.
The remaining 12 are still hospitalized, but 11 of them have already tested negative for MERS, according to ministry officials.
Most of them are only recovering from complications caused by the infection.
South Korea plans to announce an official end to the MERS outbreak 28 days after the one remaining patient tests negative for the virus. On Tuesday, the country declared a de facto end to the outbreak.
Since the country reported its first case on May 20, nearly 16,700 people have been subject to isolation for possible infection after coming in close contact with MERS patients.
The number of people in isolation dipped to zero earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, health authorities lifted an isolation measure placed on 47 people, including two people who showed possible symptoms of MERS following their recent trips to Middle Eastern countries. The two tested negative for MERS, and the remaining 45 people were placed in quarantine due to close contact with them.
MERS is a viral respiratory syndrome that was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
The disease has since affected over 1,300 people throughout the world, but most of the cases have been linked to the Middle Eastern country.
South Korea has the second-largest number of MERS cases in the world after Saudi Arabia, which has reported over 1,000 cases since 2012.
The fatality rate of the disease in South Korea remains at 19.4 percent, while the rate for the rest of the world is around 40 percent.
Hong Kong on Saturday lifted its travel alert for South Korea, saying that Seoul has not reported any additional infections of MERS for the past 28 days.
Hong Kong, which is sensitive to the outbreak of respiratory diseases since Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome broke out in the country in 2003, issued a travel alert for South Korea in early June, advising its people not to make unnecessary trips to the South.
On Tuesday, seven nations, including Russia, Vietnam and part of China, lifted their travel warnings on South Korea, which had been imposed due to MERS. (Yonhap)
