The number of people in quarantine had fallen 12% from Thursday to 5,930, a day after Thailand reported Southeast Asia's first case of the deadly virus since the South Korean outbreak.
South Korea said on Friday that the MERS outbreak that has killed 24 people appears to have begun subsiding, as it reported one new case -- the lowest rate of new infections in two weeks.
This brought to 166 the total number of confirmed cases of the disease in the country since the first was confirmed on May 20, the health ministry said. The number of people in quarantine had fallen 12 percent from Thursday to 5,930, a day after Thailand reported Southeast Asia's first case of the deadly virus since the South Korean outbreak.
The government of President Park Geun-Hye has come under attack for its inadequate initial response but World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Margaret Chan expressed guarded optimism yesterday over South Korea's ability to contain the outbreak.
She said Seoul was now "on a very good footing" after an initially slow response. A rural village, which had been sealed off for quarantine, was opened up today, allowing its population of 102 people to resume normal activities.
"Apparently, the outbreak has started subsiding," a health ministry official in Seoul said. "But we have to wait and see whether more cases occur" in hospitals exposed to the virus, he added. The latest case involved a 62-year-old man who contracted the virus while giving nursing care to an infected family member at Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, the largest epicentre of the outbreak linked to about half of all confirmed cases.
The hospital suspended services to non-MERS sufferers on Sunday, with other patients being moved to different medical facilities, and would remain closed for other treatment at least until Wednesday next week.
Currently, 112 patients are in hospital, while 30 people who have recovered have been released. Jangdeok Village in Sunchang County south of Seoul was back to normal after road blocks were lifted today, two weeks after a 72-year-old resident there was diagnosed with the virus.
"This is good. I felt like I had been a prisoner for a long time", Park Yoo-Hyun, a 72-year-old farmer, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. A second village under quarantine is expected to follow suit on Monday, barring any new cases there.
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