South Korea quarantines 1,300 for MERS infection

Two days after two people died from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and 29 tested positive to the infection in South Korea, about 1,300 people have been put under self or institutional quarantine.

Kwon Joon-wook, head of the central headquarters for management of the MERS, told a press briefing on Wednesday that 1,312 people were on the isolation list of the health authorities.

The number of people placed under quarantine jumped from 791 on Tuesday to 1,364 on Wednesday.

Among them, 52 people were freed from isolation, having showed no specific symptom during the incubation period of two weeks.

About 1,200 people were on the self-quarantine list, which means that they refrain from going outside and stay at home under the regular check of the health authorities.

Some 100 people were placed under isolation in the government-designated medical institutions.

In China, one person has been diagnosed with MERS.

MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a new type of corona virus that is similar to the one causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

So far, there is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, with its fatality rate reaching 40.7 per cent.

The first case was spotted in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported more than 1,000 cases of the infection globally and more than 400 deaths.