South Korea is hopeful their Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak is cresting, as the number of infections is growing more slowly.
According to Reuters, South Korea reported 126 people infected and 13 dead from the virus as of Friday. Unlike past spikes in infections, Friday's report only showed an increase of four.
South Korea traces its outbreak, the largest outside Saudi Arabia, back to a 68-year-old man who returned home three weeks ago from the Middle East. Since, all the country's cases are suspected to have been transferred in healthcare facilities.
South Korea responded by placing thousands of citizens in quarantine, though some have not abided and traveled outside the country. More than 1,000 schools have since closed for fear of infection, as have two hospitals, the Associated Press reported.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, a senior official from the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the country's government sees "no danger of an additional spread." Regardless, the World Health Organization is planning an "emergency committee will meet soon," the Agence France-Presse reported.
"The signs are beginning to look promising," Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Center, told Reuters. "I'm hopeful it's beginning to decline, but there are still patients."
