Hong Kong sets 'serious' response to South Korea's MERS outbreak
SEOUL | BY JU-MIN PARK AND JACK KIM
Hong Kong upgraded to "serious" on Monday its response to an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea, where the number of cases jumped and fears grew about the economic impact of the disease.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the progress of MERS, which has been spreading in South Korea since last month when a businessman brought it home from a Middle East trip, had to be halted, a day after authorities began using mobile phones to trace people who violate quarantine.
With a surge in the number of cases to 87 from 44 the previous day, South Korea has the second highest number of infections after Saudi Arabia, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
An 80-year-old man became South Korea's sixth fatality of a disease that first appeared in the Middle East in 2012.
Most of the disease's approximately 445 fatalities have been in the Middle East but memories are fresh in Asia of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people worldwide.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not recommended travel restrictions and its director-general, Margaret Chan, said she believed South Korea would be able to control the spread.
Hong Kong sets 'serious' response to South Korea's MERS outbreakSEOUL | BY JU-MIN PARK AND JACK KIMHong Kong upgraded to "serious" on Monday its response to an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea, where the number of cases jumped and fears grew about the economic impact of the disease.South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the progress of MERS, which has been spreading in South Korea since last month when a businessman brought it home from a Middle East trip, had to be halted, a day after authorities began using mobile phones to trace people who violate quarantine.With a surge in the number of cases to 87 from 44 the previous day, South Korea has the second highest number of infections after Saudi Arabia, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.An 80-year-old man became South Korea's sixth fatality of a disease that first appeared in the Middle East in 2012.Most of the disease's approximately 445 fatalities have been in the Middle East but memories are fresh in Asia of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people worldwide.MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS.The World Health Organization (WHO) has not recommended travel restrictions and its director-general, Margaret Chan, said she believed South Korea would be able to control the spread.
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