Roundup: Public distrust deepens in S.Korea on gov't MERS response

Public distrust deepened in South Korea over the government's response to the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the government belatedly broadened countermeasures after a surge in the viral disease spread.

Seven out of 10 South Korean people distrusted the government over its lax and belated response to the MERS. The Realmeter survey of 500 adults showed Friday that 68.3 percent distrusted the government for the bungling of its response to the viral disease.

After the MERS breakout, the approval rate of President Park Geun-hye tumbled to 34 percent this week from 40 percent last week, the Gallup Korea survey showed.

The number of South Koreans diagnosed with the MERS surged to 41 Friday since the patient zero was confirmed positive on May 20.

Despite Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo's pledge to prevent " even an ant" from passing the quarantine network, the infection number continued to increase beyond the quarantine network, boosting public fears and concerns.

The health ministry said Friday that it will look into all people, including patients, medical staffs and even visitors who dropped by or stayed at the Pyongtaek St. Mary's Hospital where 30 infectees contracted the corona virus.

The widest range of inspection came 16 days after the patient zero was diagnosed with the MERS on May 20. The hospital, located in the city of the same name about 60 km south of Seoul, is a place where the patient zero was hospitalized for three days from May 15.

The government initially put under quarantine only the patient who shared a hospital room with the first patient, his family and medical staffs. Only after contagion cases were reported from the same ward, the ministry widened the monitoring range.

During the process, a 44-year-old man flew to China despite medical advice of dropping his travel plan, exporting the MERS fears to China and Hong Kong. The man was originally excluded from the government quarantine list.

Minister Moon told a press briefing Friday that the government initially formed a narrow range of monitoring list, admitting errors in the response. If stronger measures were taken at an early stage, contagions should have been limited.

The government as well as the presidential office denounced Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon for his announcement on late Thursday evening of a doctor at a hospital in Seoul, who the Seoul metropolitan government claimed had contact with thousands of unspecified individuals under conditions of suspected MERS contagion.

Mayor Park held an emergency press briefing on Thursday night, saying that the 38-year-old male doctor strode down the street in Seoul until he was confirmed positive for the MERS on Monday.

The city government said that the doctor began to show a slight symptom of the viral disease from May 29 and he had contact with a number of people in a symposium and 1,565 people at an event on May 30. He also joined the same symposium on May 31 before being put under quarantine later that day.

The doctor refuted the city government's announcement, saying in several local media interviews that the MERS symptoms began to appear from May 31 and he didn't attend the symposium that day. The doctor admitted that he participated in the symposium and the event, attended by 1,565 people, on May 30.

Minister Moon expressed strong regrets over Mayor Park's " unilateral" announcement during the press briefing on Friday. Before the briefing, an unidentified presidential official told an unscheduled press briefing that Park raised public anxieties and chaos due to differences in explanation about the doctor's outside activity.

Some conservative newspapers criticized Mayor Park for his " hasty" announcement, but the response of Park, one of the country' s strong presidential hopefuls in the liberal camp, was increasingly supported on the Internet.

Park told a press briefing Friday that the city government viewed the doctor case as a matter requiring a prompt response, saying that now is not a time to blame someone, but a time to disclose a sufficient information and ask citizens to cooperate for a successful quarantine.

The mayor described the current situation as "semi-wartime," urging the government to get together and discuss countermeasures together. Endi