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12 coronavirus patients still in hospitals in South Korea - health ministry

No new MERS cases have been reported from South Korea for 18 days

SEOUL, July 23. /TASS/. As many as 12 patients with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are still undergoing medical treatment at hospitals in South Korea, the country’s ministry of health and welfare said on Thursday.

Eleven of them have no virus in blood tests, but they have to stay in hospital due to after-effects.

No new MERS cases have been reported from South Korea for 18 days. In case this tendency stays, the MERS outbreak will be officially announced over on August 2.

As many as 186 cases have been registered since May 20. The overall death toll from the disease in South Korea is 35.

The first MERS case in South Korea was registered on May 20.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by the newly identified MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that is new to humans. It was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since spread to other countries, including Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France - 23 in all, where more than 1,100 MERS cases have been officially registered, of which 40% ended in patients’ deaths.

Most MERS-CoV patients develop severe acute respiratory illness, including fever, cough, and trouble breathing. About 3-4 out of every 10 MERS patients die. MERS-CoV is spread through close contact.