14 MERS infections added in S.Korea, 1 more death reported
Xinhua, June 7, 2015 Adjust font size:
Fourteen infections with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) were added in South Korea on Sunday, sending the total number to 64, the health ministry said.
Among the 14 new cases was one death of a 75-year-old patient, who had passed away Friday but was confirmed positive Sunday. The total death toll from the viral disease rose to 5, sending the fatality rate to 7.8 percent.
Ten people contracted the corona virus when they stayed at the emergency room of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul for three days from May 27 together with the 14th patient, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The total number infected at the Samsung hospital surged to 17, including a doctor of the hospital suspected of having contact with thousands of unspecified individuals under MERS contagion and spreading the virus to others.
The 14th infectee was estimated to have transported the virus from the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's Hospital, where the first patient was hospitalized for three days from May 15, in the city of Pyeongtaek some 60 km south of Seoul to the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.
The 14th infectee traveled to Seoul by bus on May 27 to be hospitalized at the Samsung Medical Center, in which the 35-year- old man infected a total of 17.
Three new cases came from the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's Hospital. Twenty-eight patients were infected from the first patient at the Pyeongtaek hospital, and eight others were the cases of tertiary contagion having occurred there.
The remaining one was the tertiary contagion, in which the new infectee caught the virus from the 16th patient at an unidentified hospital. Endi