Kwon said the second phase at the Samsung Medical Center was expected to calm down soon, but he expressed deep worries about the 76th patient who contracted the virus from the 14th patient for two days from May 27 at the Samsung Medical Center.
The 75-year-old woman, tested positive Monday, visited emergency rooms of the Gangdong Kyunghee University Medical Center and the Konkuk University Medical Center before being put under quarantine. The two hospitals are located in Seoul.
Those who visited the two hospitals and were suspected of MERS infection totaled 386 people, now being placed under quarantine.
The health authorities asked people visiting the two hospitals to be put under self-quarantine after reporting their visit to the authorities, not to visit other hospitals.
The 81st patient, confirmed positive Monday, went to the southern port city of Busan after visiting the Samsung Medical Center, boosting fears that the MERS might have spread nationwide.
A 72-year-old woman, tested positive Sunday, moved back to her home in Sunchang, North Jeolla Province after being discharged on May 21 from the Pyeongtaek hospital where the patient zero stayed. The whole village has been under quarantine to prevent further spread.
As of Monday, 2,508 people have been under quarantine, and 583 people were released from the isolation. A 50-year-old infectee, a doctor who treated the first patient, was discharged from a hospital, sending the total hospital discharge to two.
The remaining six new cases came from the 16th patient at two hospitals in Daejeon, a city at the center of South Korea.
Among them, four people contracted the virus at Daecheong Hospital, with the other two taking the contagion at Konyang University Hospital. Those infected at the two hospitals increased to seven respectively.
The MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a new type of corona-virus, similar to the SARS virus that killed more than 770 people worldwide following a 2003 outbreak. There is no known vaccine or treatment for the MERS, of which fatality rate reaches 40.7 percent.
The first MERS case was spotted in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The World Health Organization has reported more than 1,000 cases of MERS globally and more than 400 deaths.
