Roundup: Insufficient gov't response leads to MERS fears in S. Korea

The number of South Koreans diagnosed with the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) surged to 30 on Wednesday, just two weeks after the patient zero was tested positive on May 20. The country became the most MERS-contagious outside the Middle East.

South Korean government has been under harsh criticism for its "lax and incompetent" response to the corona virus spread. Some ruling party lawmakers called for the declaration of "a state of national emergency."

Ruling Saenuri Party chief Kim Moo-sung told a party meeting that "our country's most urgent issue is MERS now" as the MERS case surged from 18 Monday to 30 Wednesday, noting that many schools suspended classes amidst rising anxieties and fears from the public.

As of Wednesday, 209 schools have suspended or closed classes nationwide to prevent the MERS contagion to students. Almost 90 percent of suspended schools came from the Gyeonggi Province, where the capital Seoul is geographically located in the center.

The ruling party's floor leader Yoo Seung-min called for the declaration of the MERS spread as a state of national emergency to make all-out efforts at the prevention.

Rep. Shim Jae-cheol of the ruling party said that he was reminded of the Sewol disaster after watching the MERS incident in all shambles.

IN ALL SHAMBLES

The patient zero floated around four hospitals without knowing why he was suffering a fever, before the 68-year-old man was diagnosed with the MERS at the fourth hospital on May 20. The first patient infected more than 20 people at the second hospital for three days from May 15.

The doctor, who treated the first patient, asked the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention to test if his patient was infected with the MERS, but the country's single viral disease confirmation agency denied the first call and delayed the confirmation by two days.

Amid rising denunciations from local news organizations, the agency said in a statement Wednesday that it abided by the rule of confirmation process.

It indicated that the agency itself admitted errors in the rule. The doctor reported to the agency that his patient visited Bahrain, but the agency said Bahrain is not a country where the MERS occurred.

The health authorities had believed that no tertiary contagion could happen as a majority of infectees had been infected directly from the patient zero at one hospital, called "herd infection." But, the first two tertiary contagions were reported Tuesday, and one more case was identified a day later.

A MERS-infected South Korean man went to China on May 26 despite recommendations from doctor of dropping his travel plan. The health authorities initially excluded him from its quarantine list despite his visit to his infected father and sister, allowing him to leave for China without any hindrance.

TOURISM, RETAIL SALES

Such carelessness is expected to discourage many more Chinese tourists from traveling to South Korea. According to Korea Tourism Organization, some 2,000 Chinese people had cancelled their travel plan as of Monday. Around 500 people of China's Taiwan also had dropped their trip to South Korea.

In 2014 alone, about 6.1 million Chinese tourists visited South Korea for sightseeing, contributing to recovery in the country's lackluster domestic demand.

Local discount outlets were quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying that they are worried much about possible decline in sales caused by the fall in Chinese tourists and the reluctance of local consumers to go shopping.

Sales in the country's largest discount chain E-mart reduced 1. 2 percent from May 29 to June 2 compared with a year earlier. The sales increased 2.3 percent from May 15 to May 19, a day before the first patient was confirmed positive on May 20.

"I heard that the MERS is a dangerous disease like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). I recently refrain from going outside and watching news. I also delayed going shopping," Choi Myong-ran, 79, said in an interview with Xinhua.

The South Korean economy hit an unexpected snag of the MERS amid faltering exports and industrial production. Output in all industries fell for two straight months, and the headline inflation stayed at the zero-percent level for six months in a row.

Exports, which account for about half of the economy, showed an accelerating downward trend this year from a 0.9 percent fall in January to declines of 3.3 percent in February, 4.3 percent in March, 8.1 percent in April and 10.9 percent in May respectively. Endi