Start date 2015 Location South Korea | Location South Korea | |
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An outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred in South Korea from May 2015 to July 2015. The virus, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was a newly emerged betacoronavirus that was first identified in a patient from Saudi Arabia in April 2012. From the outbreak, a total of 186 cases have been infected, with a death toll of 36.
Contents
Outbreak
South Korea reported its first MERS case on 20 May 2015. A 68-year-old man returning from the Middle East was diagnosed with MERS nine days after he initially sought medical help.
The following table shows the daily statistics on the number of infected persons since 20 May 2015, based on the official report of the Central MERS Management Task Force, Ministry of Health and Welfare at the beginning of each day.
^*1 Includes a case reported in China
^*2 Parentheses indicate interim value
Government reaction
Ministry of Health and Welfare did not disclose the relevant information to the public at the beginning of the outbreak. According to them, disclosing the names of medical institutions that are hospitalizing the MERS patient might cause unnecessary anxiety to the facility users.
Such action was not welcomed by the public and the Ministry’s action to regulate the outbreak was heavily criticized due to its inability to properly disclose the information to hospitals and municipal government.
On 3 June 2015, it was found that the Ministry did not notify the Incheon municipal government the transfer of infected patient to its local medical institution.
On 4 June 2015, Seoul municipal government disclosed that a thirty-fifth infected patient had been discharged, unaware of the infection, and had moved freely within Seoul city, but was not notified of such patient by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, but rather, was found out by the Seoul government official.
After 2,361 people were isolated, 64 patients were infected and 5 infected patients died, the central government finally disclosed the names of MERS exposed medical institutions on 7 June 2015.
Hospitals
On 7 June 2015, the South Korean government released the names of 24 MERS-affected hospitals to the public. These hospitals include the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's (SeongMo) Hospital (평택성모병원) and the Seoul Samsung Hospital (삼성서울병원), an affiliate of Samsung Medical Center.
Related incidents
On 26 May 2015, a 44-year-old South Korean man, his father and elder sister being confirmed to be infected by MERS, paid no notice to a doctor's advice or a self quarantine order from the government, and arrived in Huizhou through Hong Kong for a business trip. When he was found to have a fever, the man was suspected of being dishonest with border quarantine officers in Hong Kong by concealing that he had been to hospital on 16 May for nearly 4 hours to visit his father. He has tested positive for MERS.
On 30 May 2015, a website said that a driver in Huizhou who transported a South Korean male MERS patient was suspected to be infected but later the government clarified that this was a rumor.
A Chinese fugitive who stayed in South Korea for 3 years turned himself in as he was afraid of the outbreak. He arrived at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport on 4 June.
On 8 June 2015, a South Korean couple who did not follow the self-quarantine notice were found to have visited the Philippines on 6 June. They had visited the respective clinics in Sunchang County where a 72-year-old woman was confirmed positive for MERS after having visited the clinic for lumbago treatment. The couple said that they only knew that the 72-old woman was a MERS positive patient only after reading the news.
On 9 June 2015, two Hong Kong students from City University of Hong Kong doing a 3-month exchange program in Sungkyunkwan University were ordered by a professor to get out of the classroom as they refused to remove their protective masks. The professor also said that they were too sensitive to the outbreak because of the history of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003. Sungkyunkwan University replied that some professors saw wearing masks as impolite and said if students insist on wearing masks, they might be refused to give presentations in class and may be unable to graduate due to this. Affected students said this reflected that the South Korean public was not attentive to the threat of the MERS outbreak.
On 14 June, a South Korean man was tested for the virus in Bratislava in Slovakia. He is currently being treated at a hospital in Bratislava. On the same day, he was tested negative, now quarantined for being tested for additional causes.
On 25 June, a South Korean man who had been treated at a Chinese hospital after being diagnosed with the MERS virus in late May, was released from the hospital and returned to South Korea.
Education
The following table shows the number of schools which have been temporarily closed due to the outbreak:
Economy
On 11 June 2015, South Korea's central bank cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to stem the economic fallout from the outbreak.
South Korea's department store sales decreased by 16.5% compared to the same period last year, and retail shops also decreased 3.4%, according to the Minister of Strategy and Finance, as of June 17, 2015.
As of 17 June 2015, 100,000 tourist visits to the nation had been cancelled.