South Korea’s Health Ministry reported yesterday that there are two more deaths in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, according to TodayOnline.
Amidst the reports of the 29 fatalities in South Korea, the health ministry has ordered hospitals to track all emergency ward visitors, according to Fox News.
Many of the MERS cases in South Korea were reportedly caught from sufferers encountered in emergency wards before they were diagnosed.
“This issue has been raised as one of the biggest problems, as we looked at the trend of the MERS outbreak,” stated ministry official Kwon Deok-cheol.
There has reportedly been one new confirmed case, bringing the total of patients to 180. These cases have all reportedly been traced back to health care settings.
77 people reportedly remain hospitalized receiving treatment. Most of the fatalities have reportedly been elderly patients or those who had existing illnesses.
Although the number of emerging cases has reportedly slowed down, health officials remain cautious. Hospitals are now reportedly required to keep a record of all patients and family members as well as ambulance workers and the time of their visits, according to the health ministry.
The emergency ward at a hospital in Seoul run by the Samsung Group had reportedly become the “epicenter” of the MERS outbreak after a 35-year-old patient waited almost three days for a bed while nearly 900 patients, their families and other visitors, along with hospital staff, went through the ward.
The health ministry in South Korea has made sure to stay on top of the outbreak.
Officials reportedly stated on Thursday that they were monitoring more than 2,000 people who had been in a different Seoul hospital with a patient who was later confirmed as MERS positive.
