MERS infections in S.Korea rise to 162 with 8 new cases

Infection with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) increased to 162 in South Korea Wednesday as eight new cases were reported, the health ministry said.

Among the new cases were five people contracting the virus at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, where the patient 14, called super spreader, has infected nearly 80 people, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

One Samsung hospital doctor, 33, was included in the list of new infectees. The doctor is now under investigation as the health authorities hasn't figured out where and from whom the man was infected.

If the doctor treated patients and had contact with many others, he could become another source of contagion.

The remaining three cases caught the virus each at the Hallym University Medical Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, the Gangdong Kyunghee University Medical Center in Seoul and a small clinic in Pyeongtaek, about 60 km south of Seoul.

The new case from the Kyunghee hospital was a 31-year-old doctor who treated patients at the emergency room on June 5 when the patient 76 visited the hospital. Doctor infectees totaled five as of Wednesday.

No death was reported, leaving the death toll at 19. Among 124 infectees under treatment, 18 people have been in unstable conditions.

Two patients were discharged from hospitals as they completely recovered after being infected. It raised the total number of hospital discharge to 19.

The number of people quarantined was 6,508 Wednesday, up 922 from the previous day. People ordered to stay at home grew 672, with those isolated at the government-designated hospitals rising 250. Endi