South Korea's Health Ministry confirmed the country's third death from the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), as their number of cases and quarantined citizens continues to rise.
According to Reuters, an 82-year-old man died Wednesday and South Korea confirmed Thursday he was being treated in a part of the hospital where other MERS patients were. He was the country's 36th confirmed case of MERS.
MERS originated in Saudi Arabia and was first traced back to bats and camels, but spread to South Korea when an infected person came home from the Middle East. The country is now the second-most infected behind only the Middle East due to what some experts have called a slow, indecisive response.
MERS comes from a coronavirus from the same family as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that killed hundreds of people across the globe from 2002 to 2004.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday South Korea's MERS outbreak does appear to be reaching its peak yet, CNN reported. Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the 82-year-old man who died Wednesday night was one of six newly confirmed cases.
In efforts to prevent the outbreak from worsening, more than 1,000 schools have closed and many citizens walk around with hospital masks. What's more is South Korea has placed more than 1,600 people in quarantine, Reuters reported. The country has also asked 1,565 more to enter voluntary quarantine for attending a meeting on May 30 where a doctor diagnosed with MERS on June 1 had been.
While South Korea has received some criticism for its response, the country's capital, Seoul, is asking citizens to reign in their fears.
"We are taking actions... to prevent spread of the disease," Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said at a news conference. "But I don't think citizens should be excessively fearful."
